VietNamNet Bridge – Securities trading last week declined. The VN-Index on the HCM City Stock Exchange lost 1.36 per cent over the previous week, reaching 470.68 points.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index finished at 61 points, a 2.84 per cent decline.
After strong sell-offs earlier in the week, the sellers reduced their trading. This helped the buyers push up indices. However, buying at low prices still occurred cautiously and trading value and volume continually declined.

The same old story was repeated last week when the market rallied with low liquidity. Meanwhile, large investors still limited their participation in the market.

VietCapital Securities Co analysts adjusted their forecast for this year's consumer price index growth from 6-7 per cent to 7-8 per cent. "The economy is still struggling with a slight increase in production value and weak consumption," they said.

Banks were not willing to make loans, although they had adequate capital.

"In addition, cost-push inflation remains because many provinces have not reduced medical service costs," the analysts said.

Meanwhile, the Government expects to raise electricity prices by 7 per cent.

The economy was not prospering, said Maritime Bank Securities Co analyst Tran Quoc Hoan, adding that trading volume last week was badly affected by this factor as well as by investor caution.

"There was a clear differentiation between cash into large-cap stocks and penny stocks," he said. While blue chips and shares tracked by exchange-traded funds' portfolios were traded actively, penny stocks saw very low liquidity.

This week, the trading of shares may be impacted by funds' review of their investment portfolios.

In the first revision this year of the Market Vectors Vietnam Index, the fund manager said it would retain the 17 Vietnamese stocks in the index calculating basket.

Vietcombank (VCB) and insurer Bao Viet (BVH) will hold the largest proportion in the index with 8 per cent, followed by property developer Vingroup (VIC), Phu My Fertiliser and Sacombank.

Meanwhile, the two stocks with the highest growth in the index's portfolio are construction giant Vinaconex (VCG) – which jumped from 3.07 to 4.08 per cent - and BVH, which leapt from 7 to 8 per cent. In contrast, the two codes with the fastest decrease were PetroVietnam Technical Services (PVS) – which fell from 5.43 to 2.96 per cent - and VIC, which declined from 8 to 7 per cent.

All changes will come into effect next Monday.

After concluding as sellers during the last three sessions of February, foreign investors turned to be buyers in the first trading week of March, with the net value of trades reaching more than VND190 billion ($9 million).

Source: VNS