Foreign selling weighs on Vietnam's stock market

Strong selling by foreign investors overshadowed the Vietnamese stock market during the first half of the trading week.The stocks sold were mostly in the portfolio of the Market Vectors Vietnam Exchange-Traded Fund (VNM-ETF). The fund's investors withdrew around 137 billion Vietnamese dong (6.5 million U.S. dollars) during last week's trading sessions.Selling pressure of foreign investors has negatively affected domestic investors' sentiment.According to analysts, the unloading of shares was in line with their capital withdrawal from other emerging markets on concerns of the military attack on Syria.The selling trend stopped in the last two trading days of the week and pulled up the country's stock indexes and liquidity.However, analysts warned that in the short term, foreign investors will likely continue to sell shares in the domestic market.The VN-Index of HoSE went up 2.46 points or 0.52 percent to close at 480.03 points on Friday.During the four-day trading week, VN-Index gained 7.33 point or 1.55 percent against last Friday's closing session. The index experienced two ups and two downs, posting the highest level of 480.03 points on Friday and the lowest level of 471.45 points on Wednesday. Last week VN-Index ranged from 468.55 points to 490.54 points.A total of 46.816 million shares worth 1.268 trillion VND (60. 13 million U.S. dollars) changed hands at the HoSE on Friday, a decrease of 1.41 percent in volume and an increase of 60.94 percent in value against Thursday.VN-30 index, the new benchmark index for the HoSE which has been applied since Feb. 6, 2012 and tracks the 30 leading shares by both market capitalization and liquidity, closed at 534.48 points on Friday, up 3.09 points, or 0.58 percent against the previous trading day.A total of 25.969 million shares were traded, worth 961.9 billion VND (45.58 million U.S. dollars).On the country's northern bourse, Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index concluded at 60.45 points, down 0.17 points, or 0.28 percent on Friday against the previous trading day's closing session.