Motorcyclists pass the Hanoi Stock Exchange in Hanoi on April 8, 2025. (Photo by Nhac NGUYEN / AFP)
HANOI: After a robust five‑week rally to start the year, Vietnam’s stock market slipped into its first correction phase last week.
Although the trading week opened on a positive note, upward momentum quickly faded as liquidity dropped sharply, resulting in four consecutive sessions of decline.
While the week’s losses were not severe, the VN‑Index moved within a narrow band, suggesting that selling pressure has yet to reach critical levels.
The pattern reflects increasingly cautious sentiment among investors following a rapid run‑up in prices.
On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN‑Index ended the week at 1,870.79 points, while the HNX‑Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) last traded at 252.96 points.
Over the week, the former slipped 0.44% whereas the latter edged up 0.27%. Market liquidity fell markedly after two previously explosive weeks.
According to Kirin Securities, total trading volume on the HoSE reached 4.25 billion shares, down 30.6% from the prior week. Average daily trading value dropped 15.5% to just over 35 trillion dong, underscoring a more cautious approach to capital deployment.
Foreign flows also weighed on sentiment, with overseas investors maintaining a strong net‑selling position of 3.14 trillion dong for the week, a 40% increase from the previous period.
The steepest declines were concentrated in small‑cap sectors that had surged earlier. Textiles fell 4.48%, insurance 6.21% and plastics 7.68%. In contrast, chemicals stood out as a rare bright spot, rising 8.59% as the sector showed signs of recovery after several weeks of bottoming out.
Another notable shift was the reversal in performance among state‑owned enterprises, which had previously underpinned the market.
Analysts at Pinetree Securities observed that companies with significant state ownership in oil and gas, banking and telecommunications no longer displayed the same resilience.
Many of these stocks weakened in the final sessions of the week, turning from market leaders into sources of downward pressure.
Experts at Kirin Securities noted that investor sentiment has clearly become more cautious. The scale of the correction remains limited and overall trading volume is still low, indicating that panic selling has not taken hold and that a sustained downtrend has yet to be confirmed.
Technically, the market’s earlier bullish trend appears to be pausing rather than reversing.
Even so, Kirin expects the VN‑Index to undergo a technical pullback towards the 1,800 to 1,810‑point support range in the near term before resuming a more constructive trajectory.
In this context, the firm advised investors to maintain existing portfolios and avoid initiating new positions, recommending a prudent approach to any portfolio adjustments.
Meanwhile, CSI Securities highlighted clear signs of market weakness, pointing to the confirmation of negative sentiment following the formation of a distinct downward candle on the VN‑Index.
The coming week is likely to bring further technical adjustments, said CSI Securities.
BETA Securities maintained that despite the ongoing correction, both medium and long‑term trends remain intact. — Viet Nam News/ANN
