Investors return as stock market bounces back

Ngoc Suong, a stock broker at a South Korean securities company, said one of her customers recently returned to the market with a VND2 billion (US$80,600) investment in several blue chips.

The customer had pulled out in June after cutting his losses and said he would not return to the market until the benchmark VN-Index dipped below 900 points.

"After the market dived to 875 points and bounced back, he said ‘that’s the bottom’ and bought two stocks in the VN30 basket."

In Thu Duc City, Hoang has been watching the stock of a construction company that is now at its lowest since mid-2020.

Last month a Japanese fund bought the stock at VND32,500, and now it is at around VND10,000, and he decided to buy 50,000 shares and plans to buy more if it falls lower.

"I have confidence that the stock is now at its bottom."

On many investment groups on social media, people are starting to buy the dip after months of inactivity as the VN-Index repeatedly fell to new lows this year.

After two years of rising and finally topping the 1,500 level in the first quarter of this year, the benchmark fell to its lowest since October 2020 and lost 35% this year.

It is now the worst performing index globally, according to StockQ.

Inflation and problems related to the property and bond markets have been blamed for the decline, while globally the Russia-Ukraine crisis and forecasts of a recession continue to cast a shadow on Vietnam’s markets.

But some analysts are expecting a recovery.

Vietcombank Securities said on November 16 that if the buying remains strong, the market could rise for the next several sessions and short-tern investors with a high risk appetite could invest 20-30% of their money in sectors such as securities, oil and gas and retail.

Analysts at Phu Hung Securities also advised their customers to start buying in small volumes shares of companies with a good performance.

But not Vo Cong Minh, director of ACB Securities, who said it is still too early to buy, especially for speculators.

"The win-lose rate is 50-50 if you [want to] buy and sell within several days."

But he said the recent arrests related to bond issuances would have a long-term benefit.

Rong Viet Securities has advised its customers to wait for further corrections to ensure that an uptrend has been established, but warned against using leverage indicating it is nothing more than a dead cat bounce.