When the dust settled on Jan. 15 on a week of ups and downs on the HCM Stock Exchange, the VN-Index had lost 15.48 points, or 2.97 percent, from the previous week, closing at 505.42.

Meanwhile, investors once again began to stay away from the market. The southern bourse saw average daily trades last week of nearly 43.5 million shares, averaging a daily value of 1.9 trillion VND (102.2 million USD), a drop of 31.4 percent from previous week.

“Concerns about inflation governed trading decisions all last week, contributing to driving the Index down,” said independent market analyst Nguyen Anh Dung.
Dung blamed rising concerns on assessment published last week by foreign financial institutions which suggested Vietnam could soon hike its prime rate and that stronger consumer demand leading up to Tet would drive up inflation.

“As a result, trading began lacklustre and market moves unfavourable,” he said.

Fiachra MacCana, head of Research for HCM City Securities Co, said on Jan. 15 that the market seemed to be holding its breath for the January inflation data which would be released toward the end of the month.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange last week, the HNX-Index also dipped by a cumulative 4.67 percent to close the week at 171.37 points. Volumes slowed to 27.4 million shares per day, for an average value of 964 billion VND (52.1 million USD).

Gossip circulated last week about Dragon Capital, a long-standing investment company in Vietnam , and its plan to liquidate part of its portfolio. The fund executives moved quickly to deny the rumours, but they still had some impact.
“This gossip would not have bothered the market if investors had had another things to care for,” said Dung, noting the calm situation with the domestic economy.” However, the more peaceful it is, the easier it is to shake them up.”

Foreign investors bucked last weeks trend to become net buyers on both stock exchanges last week, picking up a net of 5.7 million shares worth a combined 265.4 billion VND (14.3 million USD)./.