The VN-Index ended last week at 409.20 points, a decrease of 1.34 percent from the previous week's close and 3.9 percent since the beginning of the month.

The average daily volume of trades on the HCM Stock Exchange last week dropped by 27.4 percent from the prior week to just 347.4 billion VND (16.8 million USD), on an average daily volume of only 18.9 million shares.

The average daily value of trades on the Hanoi Stock Exchange also fell by 1.2 percent to 204.8 billion VND (9.9 million USD), while volume inched up 0.7 percent to 19.4 million shares.

The HNX-Index fell by 0.9 percent overall during the week to conclude July 22's session at 70.88 points.

Gains on both exchanges on July 20 failed to give the indices a boost during the subsequent two trading days. Cash continued to flow away from stocks, and investors were willing to sell at deflated prices.

But, while blue chips lost an average of 1.86 percent during the week, mid-cap shares managed a average gain of 0.2 percent, according to the website vietstock.vn.

The only positive economic information last week was that the State Bank of Vietnam had bought in 4 billion USD since the beginning of the year – or an additional 1 billion USD in just the last month alone, since the comparable figure for the year so far, back on June 22, was just 3 billion USD.

After two months during which inflation seemed to be in remission, the inflation rate in July accelerated in the nation's two largest cities.

The Government was expected to continue tight monetary policies, while aiming to reduce interest rates and control the bad debt levels of financial institutions, the Prime Minister said at the National Assembly's opening session late last week./.