Such a modest decline should give investors little concern, analysts suggested.

They maintained high faith in the market's stability as both trading volumes and values remained high. Last week, for instance, more than 66mil shares were traded for an average of 13mil per session, 5.9% fewer than the previous week, but the week showed an increase in value per session of VND200bil to VND1.3tril, or average of 17%.

Dominic Scriven, director of Dragon Capital, said, after recent gains, the market, as the matter of course, needs time to stop and adjust.

"That's the market rule. It's very dangerous for a market if it only goes up," Srciven said.

Scriven noted that the Index currently reflected a psychological barrier of 1,100 with which the market spent the past week flirting but could not surpass.

During the past week, foreign investors accounted for a whopping VND608bil of trading value on the HCM City exchange, 2.5-times the previous week's total of VND286.5bil.

The surge was attributed to the abolition of discrimination in transaction regulations between foreign and domestic investors last Monday.

Blue chips like Refrigeration Engineering (REE), Gemadept (GMD), Vinamilk (VNM), Sacombank (STB) and FPT announced solid third-quarter business results and new investment projects but their shares still performed modestly compared to newer listings like Can Tho Techno Agriculture Supplying (TSC), Thanh Cong Textiles (TCM), some Song Da subsidiaries and other mid-caps like Pan Pacific (PAN).

These shares hit their ceilings in consecutive trading sessions, gaining 25-50% in value, albeit on low trading volumes due to a modest supply of shares.

Hoang Xuan Quyen, director of Investment Analysis for Tan Viet Securities, reckoned that investors were waiting to see enterprises' third-quarter business results before making investment decisions.

Other investors were awaiting upcoming initial public offering of banking giant Vietcombank and its impact on the market. Because detailed information about the IPO was not forthcoming, investors have had a hard time working out investment strategies. Many were reserving capital to potentially invest in the IPO.

The coming week

The big unknown on the market this week, as trading opens today, is the movement of Saigon Securities Inc's listing from the Ha Noi Securities Trading Centre (HaSTC) to the HCM City Stock Exchange (HOSE).

SSI has just increased its charter capital from VND500bil to VND800bil and reported strong profits of VND779bil in the first three quarters of the year. It was and is considered by investors to be an attractive stock with high liquidity.

SSI will be listed on HOSE today with reference price of VND250,000 and a 20% allowable fluctuation.

Source: Viet Nam News.