The trading of shares last week was mostly affected by the caution shown by traders prior to the restructuring of exchange-traded funds' portfolio.

FPT Securities Co analyst Nguyen Van Quy said, based on the current status of liquidity, that cash has not yet been drawn out of the market. "However, trading has exposed the weakness after last week's slumps."

The market will continue to be affected by the exchange-traded funds' restructuring period and the fourth quarter business results that are still to be announced, he added.

As there will be a great differentiation between stocks, Quy advised investors to accurately judge the stocks by assessing their fundamental values, rather than rumours.

Meanwhile, the VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange lost 0.8 percent, compared to December 6's close to 506.06 points. The average value of trades reached 1.46 trillion VND (68.8 million USD), as trading volume averaged 86.9 million shares per session.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index advanced 0.2 percent to 66.22 points, while trading value and volume averaged over 312.4 billion VND (14.7 million USD) and 39.3 million shares.

Market indices were boosted during earlier sessions last week by the increase of blue chips, such as private equity firm Masan (MSN), Sacombank (STB), Pha Lai Thermalpower (PPC), Vietcombank (VCB) and insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH).

However, selling pressure on speculative stocks remained high. Shares of the real estate, construction and mineral sectors, and the recent rising stars of garment company Mirae (KMR), Vietnam Ocean Shipping (VOS) and Idico - Petroleum Trading Construction Investment (PXL) were sold off.

This, in turn, created a spreading effect to large-cap stocks, bringing them down, despite strong buying by foreign investors. Foreign investors bought a total net of 145.4 billion VND (6.8 million USD) last week.

Although FTSE Vietnam ETF decided to add MSN and PetroVietnam Transporation (PVT) to its portfolio, trading on the two stocks did not come up to expectations. The buying of MSN was not as large as expected, while PVT was heavily sold. The PVT price has witnessed a long period of rising, since earlier this year, therefore profit-taking activities were intensive.

Meanwhile, on December 15, Market Vectors Vietnam ETF announced that it will exclude PetroVietnam Construction (PVX) from its tracking and add a Korean stock, instead. The fund will reduce the proportion of Vietnamese stocks to 70 percent, from the current 72.61 percent, beginning on December 23.

Market Vectors Vietnam ETF is holding more than 3.12 million PVX shares worth 3.7 million USD, equivalent to 0.96 percent of the fund's net asset value. PVX closed December 13's session at 2,300 VND, at only half of the price seen earlier this year.

Also, Sai Gon-Hanoi Bank (SHB) and Da Nang Rubber (DRC) will be sold to reduce its percentage in the fund. It will reduce SHB from 4.36 to 3.45 percent, and DRC from 2.49 to 1.86 percent.-VNA