The stock market has been under pressure to adjust for the second consecutive week after the market peaked at the historical price range of 1,800 points. Last week, the VN-Index had a sharp decline at the beginning of the week with a record decrease. The main index then had two recovery sessions in the price range around 1,620 points with high differentiation and reduced liquidity.
The differentiation is increasingly strong between industry groups and stocks in the same industry. At the end of the week, the VN-Index decreased by more than 48 points, equivalent to 2.77% to 1,683.18 points, below the price range of 1,700 points.
Regarding the trading value of foreign investors, this group of investors continues to press for net selling with a value of thousands of billions per session. The record decrease on October 21 alone unexpectedly saw foreign investors return to net buying, however, selling pressure quickly increased in the remaining sessions. Accumulated after 5 sessions, foreign investors net sold VND4,727 billion in the whole market.
According to statistics from stock codes, in the last trading week, MSN was the focus of the strongest net selling point with a value of more than 1,030 billion VND. On the other hand, the net buying leader was FPT with a value of VND 1,008.8 billion and was also the stock that foreign investors accumulated the most in the week.
Returning to the market developments last week, investors said that short-term profit opportunities in the market have narrowed, even investors who "catch the bottom" in the first session of the week will find it difficult to find profits. Selling pressure is still increasing in many stocks with speculative nature, high leverage. The market's attention is currently directed towards the business results of enterprises in the third quarter of 2025.
According to data from FiinTrade, as of October 20, 160 listed enterprises representing 9.4% of the total market capitalization have published financial reports or preliminary estimates. Total after-tax profit of this group increased by 114% over the same period in 2024, outperforming the growth trend in recent quarters.
This increase does not represent the general picture of the entire market in the third quarter, due to growth mainly contributed by certain enterprises, including banks and securities. However, the developments of stocks in the industry are not very positive.
In the latest report, Dragon Capital said that such deep declines are not a rare phenomenon in the market. Statistics show that from 2020 to the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2025, the VN-Index has decreased by more than 4% in just one session 20 times. However, also during this period, the market ended 4 years with a growth rate of over 12%. Since the beginning of the year, although there have been three sessions of decline of over 5%, the VN-Index has still increased by 32.5%, showing that short-term fluctuations have not changed the long-term growth trend.
Although the VN-Index has surpassed the 1,700-point mark, market valuation is still at an attractive level. The projected P/E for 2025 is only about 12.513 times and will decrease to 11 times for 2026, much lower than that of markets in the region, although Vietnam has an impressive profit growth rate.
Historically, in countries with GDP growth of over 10%, the stock market is often valued at P/E from 2025 times, even over 30 times. Therefore, the 5 10% corrections are considered completely normal before the market continues to move up.
From the above perspective, Dragon Capital continues to maintain a positive view on the long-term investment strategy, while recommending that investors firmly hold long-term to aim for outstanding profits. Investors can take advantage of the corrections to accumulate more stocks when opportunities appear, limiting short-term transactions.
