Vietnamese stocks are expected to rise further with the benchmark VN-Index forecast to surpass its all-time peak of 1,170 in 2007 on rising investor confidence in the market outlook, analysts said.

The benchmark VN-Index gained 2.49 percent to close at 1,102.85 points on February 23, after dropping 1.02 percent to finish at 1,076.03 points on February 22.

The southern market index gained 4.07 percent in three sessions last week.

The HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange rose 1.24 percent to end at 126.24 points, recovering from its one-day decline of 0.92 percent to end the session at 124.70 points on February 22.

The two stock indices witnessed a weekly rise of 4.07 percent and 1.55 percent, respectively, as money flowed into large-cap stocks, driving up the market.

An average of more than 239.82 million shares were traded in each session, worth 6.8 trillion VND (298.5 million USD).

The UPCOM Index on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) inched up 0.43 percent to finish at 59.56 points. It lost 0.15 percent to finish at 59.28 points in the previous session.

Furthermore, the unlisted market index gained 1.81 percent after the three trading sessions of the week.

According to Duong Van Chung, head of MB Securities Co’s northern branch, during the beginning of February, the market fell sharply - the VN-Index was dragged down below 1,000 points.

“I recommended investors to purchase more stocks as after Tet, the market will likely to turn upward and could possibly exceed its peak of 1,130 points set before the Tet holiday, and even surpassing the all-time peak of 1,179 in 2007,” Chung told tinnhanhchungkhoan.vn.

“With the growing momentum during the last week, I expect that the VN-Index’s recent peak of 1,130 points will be broken in the next week, led by the strong cash flow poured into financial-banking stocks,” he added.

Vietcombank shares (VCB) have increased by 23.2 percent since the beginning of the year. The figures for Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) and Vietinbank (CTG) are 44.3 percent and 18.1 percent, respectively.

According to Chung, Vietnam’s stock market is a small frontier market, which is strongly affected by the fluctuations of the world stock market.

“The market has much potential. I think in 2018, the market will experience highly volatile trading condition as investors will be trading more actively than before instead of buying and holding stocks for a long-term,” Chung said.

In March, the VN-Index may move up to reach 1,182 points to a maximum of 1,225 points, Chung forecast.

Hoang Thach Lan, head of individual client analysis at Viet Dragon Securities Company, said the VN-Index is expected to continue to rise next week, due to investors increasing their stock proportion in the pillar stocks, supporting the overall market.

“In theory, the VN-Index will inevitably exceed its all-time peak of 1,170. With the current uptrend, perhaps the Index will surpass that record next week,” Lan said.

“However, in terms of technical analysis, my indicators showed that there are more risks than a few months ago. In the worst-case scenario, the Index would continue to increase more to surpass the peak and then suddenly decline deeply for a long period,” Lan added.

He said the uptrend of Petroleum stocks is backed by oil price rebounded.

Brent crude price closed February 23 at 67.31 USD, up 0.6 percent from last year’s ending figure and up 50.1 percent from last year’s lowest hit on June 21.

PetroVietnam Gas Joint Stock Corporation shares (GAS) have climbed 8.8 percent since the beginning of this year.

According to Bao Viet Securities Company (BVSC), large-cap stocks will likely extend gains early next week, supporting the overall market. However, the market may experience some volatility when VN-Index approaches the old peak.

Meanwhile the BIDV Securities Co (BSC) said in its report that investors may consider increasing their stock proportion in the pillar stocks of the market, because these stocks are attracting major cash flows in the market.-VNA