"I've already sold most of my shares. They earned me enough to take a small vacation," said an investor with SME Securities Company "But I'm back. I'm looking to find reasons to come back to the market. The prices are good enough, but there're a lot of uncertainties."
The investor, who asked that her name be withheld, works as an accountant with a foreign-invested company in Ha Noi. She started investing in securities in 2009, when the markets had already suffered the 2008 financial crisis.
"The current situation is a repeat of what happened at the end of 2009," she said. "There are concerns over inflation making a comeback. Gold and the US dollar are volatile. Investor sentiment is uncertain."
Consistent with her assessment, stocks struggled last week on both national stock exchanges.
On the HCM City Stock Exchange, the VN-Index declined over the course of last week by 3.42 per cent, closing on Friday at 425.5 points.
The value of trades reached an average of only VND698.7 billion (US$34.1 million) per day, while the volume of trades decline by 6.2 per cent from the previous week to an average of just 31.5 million shares.
Shares of seafood processor Nam Viet Corporation (ANV) saw the most substantial increase, gaining 13.2 per cent over the course of the week, followed by TMT Automobile Company (TMT), up 12.7 per cent; Tan Binh Import-Export Company (TIX), up 10.8 per cent; and Sacombank Securities Co (SBS), up 9.9 per cent.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index closed below its basis level of 100 points, declining by 2.52 per cent during the week to end Friday's session at 99.10 points. The average value of trades slowed to just VND450.4 billion ($22 million), on an average daily volume of 26.4 million shares.
Among shares on the Ha Noi market, Lilama-Electromechanics Testing Company (LCD) made a dramatic rise during the week of 47.2 per cent, followed by Viet Nam Construction Company No.3 (VC3), up 22.5 per cent, and Safoco Foodstuff Company (SAF), up 15.2 per cent.
"The low pace of trading began weeks ago when gold prices and the US dollar began jumping up," said Dao Van Khanh, head of investment for a HCM City-based securities company. "This meant that some of the capital in securities was withdrawn or idled to cope with the uncertainties."
FPT Securities Company analyst Nguyen Quang Vinh said large-cap shares were already priced higher than small- or mid-cap shares, due to heavy buys by foreigner investors in previous weeks, so investors looked to penny stocks last week.
Foreign investors remained net buyers on the southern market last week of a meagre volume of just 227,760 shares, worth a net of just VND75.8 billion ($3.7 million), and were net sellers in Ha Noi.­