Market to resume trading on upbeat note
By Thuy Trieu - The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC – Securities brokers predict the stock market will open today on an uptrend owing to the momentum created in three consecutive rising sessions before the Tet Holiday and strong rallies on global stock markets.
Viet Capital Securities Co. in its comment says global stock markets had good performance during the past days. 
The news that Fed hiked the discount rate from 0.5% to 0.75% for the first time in over one year did not hamper the increase of stock indexes.
“Eagerness of investors, the recovery on global markets as well as the local stock market’s uptrend before Tet with active participation of foreign investors will likely herald a positive development early into the New Year,” it says.
Sharing the same view, analysts of Au Viet Securities Co. say local and foreign news during the Tet Holiday were positive. Dow Jones made the strongest rising week since November last year while the gap between the official and unofficial foreign exchange rates has narrowed after the adjustment on the rate before Tet.
Therefore, the company expects the VN-Index would break the technical resistance level of 520 points and head to the next resistance of 540 points in the first week after the long holiday.
The local stock market’s main index had three consecutive rising sessions before the holiday to end the lunar old year at 507 points. As the national biggest holiday closed in, many investors tended to refrain from trading in the last week before Tet, making the market’s liquidity decline strongly.
The market’s average daily trading volume was 22.4 million shares worth VND989 billion, decreasing 24.3% and 34.5% respectively from the previous week. However, the positive note was active participation of foreign investors.
Their net buying in two weeks before Tet was VND940 billion worth of shares on the southern bourse alone. And since January 1, foreigners were net buyers of VND1.5 trillion worth of shares, which suggested that stock prices were more reasonable.
Similar to the southern bourse, Hanoi’s market also had three rising sessions in a row before Tet to stay at 164.66 points. The market’s average daily trading volume in the last week was 10.3 million shares worth VND329 billion, falling 30% and 46% respectively from the week earlier.