Ending the trading week from April 20, the VN-Index increased by 36.12 points, equivalent to +1.98% to 1,853.29 points and recorded the fifth consecutive week of increase.
Liquidity in the week still decreased and was nearly 16% lower than the 20-week average. Accordingly, the average matched order volume on the HOSE exchange was 798 million shares/session, down more than 10% compared to the previous week, the average trading value reached 23,483 billion VND/session, down more than 6%.
On the HOSE exchange, the group of stocks with the best increase still has to be named the stock with the largest market capitalization, VIC, with an increase of nearly 13%. This stock has been in the list of stocks with the highest increases on the exchange for two consecutive weeks, last week VIC was the champion with an increase of nearly 24%.
In the opposite direction, most of the strongest declining codes only lost 6-8%, reflecting that most investors continued to hold portfolios, maintaining a state of low price supply.
However, PC1 shares were unexpectedly sold off in the last two sessions of the week and fell to the floor price with the floor selling surplus in the session on April 24 reaching more than 28.6 million units.
Although the general market traded positively, helping VN-Index return to the old peak, foreign investors continued to be a minus point when net selling up to more than 4,800 billion VND, with the focus being large codes, especially the banking sector.
Foreign investors net bought the strongest code FUEVFVND with a volume of 14.83 million units, the corresponding net buying value reached 576.1 billion VND. Followed by HPG being net bought 7.05 million units, the corresponding net buying value reached 209 billion VND.
Meanwhile, FPT shares still led the list of net selling with a value of VND 928.2 billion, equivalent to a net selling volume of 12.92 million units. Notably, this week foreign investors net sold quite strongly bank stocks, such as ACB being net sold VND 549 billion, VCB being net sold VND 526 billion, VPB being net sold VND 223.6 billion...
Commenting on the reason why foreign investors are still diligently net selling recently despite the very bright upgrading prospects, Mr. Nguyen Duy Anh - Director of Investment Portfolio Management of VCBF - stated his opinion that upgrading does not mean that cash flow will enter immediately.
With passive capital flows, only when officially included in the index basket, ETF funds allocate capital according to proportions, and this process takes place gradually. For active capital flows, early advancement from the time the upgrade story stops at the expected level may be the reason why some funds are taking profits. Conversely, funds that have not previously invested will need market research time, usually taking 6 months to 1 year before disbursement.
A limitation currently is that the number of large, high-quality enterprises that meet the conditions for foreign investors is still quite small. However, if the Government promotes IPOs of large enterprises in the near future, new supply will help attract more foreign capital. Therefore, VCBF experts expect that in the next 6-12 months, foreign capital will gradually return to the Vietnamese stock market.
Looking back at the picture of the Vietnamese stock market in the past time, it can be seen that after the fluctuations in March, large cash flow has not really returned. Organizations and investors with low risk appetite tend to disburse selectively, prioritizing risk management instead of expanding positions.
This is also reflected in the fact that many securities companies proactively control margin debt, instead of strong growth as in the previous period.
However, the medium-term outlook is still assessed more positively as external risk factors gradually cool down. The domestic market has shown signs of stabilizing again, in sync with the global trend as geopolitical tensions ease.
In particular, FTSE's confirmation of Vietnam's upgrade to the secondary emerging market in September 2026 is expected to significantly improve investor sentiment. In a positive scenario, cash flow may return more strongly in the coming quarters.
