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Foreign
investors showed great faith in Vietnamese stocks, heavily buying
shares offloaded by local players this month, brokers said.

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The
VN-Index of 154 listed companies on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange
tumbled every day over the past three weeks, losing more than 18
percent, to close at 428.05 points on Friday.


So
far this year, the benchmark index has plunged 54 percent to take out
the unfavorable honor of being the world’s worst performing stock
market.


Despite the gloomy market that has prompted local traders to jettison their stocks, foreigners remained net buyers.


When the market retreated below 500 points on May 12, foreign traders pumped in VND54 billion (US$3.3 million) into shares.


On
May 20, local investors continued their share selling frenzy, sending
the VN-Index below another key resistance level of 450 points.


In contrast, foreigners bought shares worth VND19 billion ($1.19 million).


The index dropped further in the next trading day, with 140 stocks falling, as local traders kept bailing out of the market.


Foreigners again continued to defy local player’s panic, notching up shares worth VND19.2 billion ($1.2 million).


They
bought shares worth VND65.2 billion ($4 million) on Friday when the
VN-Index lost 6.7 points, or 1.54 percent, to close at 428.05.


Investment
fund Anpha Capital Managing Director Louis Nguyen revealed his fund had
only lost around 2 percent over the first three months of the year.


His fund had entered the share market relatively late, favoring other investments in the early months of the year.


Profits from these investments had helped his fund avoid heavy losses, he said.


Despite
expecting his fund’s losses from stocks to increase as the market’s
free-fall continued, Nguyen said shares were becoming very attractive.


He said Anpha Capital was eyeing shares of five or six companies, which had good earning reports.


Another
director of a foreign-owned investment fund in HCMC, who did not wish
to be named, said his fund sustained fairly heavy losses as the market
slumped this year.


However, he said his fund will still buy more shares on both formal and informal markets.


“We planned to pump more money in the market when it fell below 500 points.


But it kept on falling further, so we decided to wait for a suitable time,” he said.




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