Profit-taking during the final two days of last week was nearly enough to erase the gains of the two-day rally earlier in the week, with the VN-Index advancing overall by 5.28 percent on the week to close on Friday at 520.90.
Daily volume on the HCM City Stock Exchange averaged over 63.2 million shares, up 29.5 per cent from the previous week’s average. The average daily value of trades also soared by over 40 percent from the previous week to VND2.9 trillion (US$155.1 million).
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, meanwhile, the HNX-Index posted a healthier net gain on the week of 6.89 percent, ending Friday’s session at 179.76 points.
The northern market saw average daily value climb by 46.7 percent to VND1.36 trillion ($72.7 million), on an average volume of over 37.2 million shares.
Despite the mixed market moves during the week, foreign investors concluded the week’s trades as net buyers on both bourses. They were responsible for a net buy of over three million shares, worth a combined VND192.8 billion ($10.3 million).
FPT Securities Company analyst Tran Duy Ngoc believed the market opened strongly at the beginning of the new year due to an announcement by the State Securities Commission that it would soon allow shares to be resold within two days of purchase (Implementing the so-called T+2 rule).
"Though we don’t know when it will take place, this information is very positive," Ngoc said. "It will increase liquidity and shorten capital rotation periods."
"The State Bank’s termination of public gold trading centres, effective on March 31, is likely to shift investment capital toward other investment channels, including the stock market," said Nguyen Trong Nghia, Director of analysis for Thang Long Securities Company.
Many banks were also expected to shortly renew lending against securities, Nghia suggested, allowing a resumption of the sort of leveraged trading that fueled market rallies last summer and autumn.
Click and Phone Securities Comapny analysts also predicted that the stock market would attract the greatest flows of capital in the near future, since bank deposits were offering low interest rates and the real estate market was largely frozen.
The State Bank of Viet Nam has also pumped money into the banking system to ease liquidity pressures on commercial banks, further helping shore up investor confidence in stock market stability and prospects. Nghia suggested real estate, building materials, banking and retail shares for investment, noting they were highly resilient when the market slacked and often had good year-end performance.
He predicted that, this coming week, the VN-Index would fluctuate between 500 and 550 points, with modest declines possible as the week opens.