Six consecutive weeks of net share sales by foreign investors, worth more than 1.1 trillion VND (52.1 million USD), have spooked the Vietnamese stock markets.

At the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, foreign investors were responsible for a combined net sale of 1.031 trillion VND (nearly 49 million USD) during the week.

Most of their sales focused on leading shares that negatively affected VN-Index performance, such as PV Gas, PetroVietnam Drilling and Wells Service, Hoa Phat Group and VinGroup.

The benchmark VN-Index lost a cumulative 5.25 percent to fall below 600 points, closing the week at 585.28 points. Meanwhile, the VN30, which tracks the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity, declined by 1.14 percent to end at 651.72 points on October 17.

The investors also unloaded shares at the Hanoi Stock Exchange, but the sales value of sold shares was modest, at 71.7 billion VND (3.4 million USD).

Nguyen Van Quy, analyst at FPT Securities Company, said the downward trend on global stock markets would likely undermine the role of foreign investors in the domestic market, particularly when they keep selling shares.

At the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index was trimmed down by 3.11 percent during the week, finishing at 87.64 points on October 17.

Rising caution also brought down liquidity at both exchanges.

Daily market volume at the Ho Chi Minh City market dropped by 23 percent compared with that of the previous week, averaging nearly 132 million shares worth 2.46 trillion VND (116.6 million USD) per session.

In Hanoi, the trading volume was down by nearly 10 percent against the previous week, averaging 71.6 million shares worth nearly 1.02 trillion VND (48.2 million USD) per day.

However, long declines have brought the price range of many stocks to levels that were attractive to bargain-hunting investors. This cushioned the market on the week's last session.

"The current prive level becomes rather attractive. Accompanied by the third-quarter reporting season, many shares will likely recover and facilitate a short-term rebound," Quy said.

He mentioned blue chips which declined substantially during the past downtrend but could be the target of money inflows in the future.

"A recovery with the support of major stocks will be longer and more sustainable," Quy added.-VNA