In one month, share prices on the trading floor rose by 29.59 percent, of which many kinds of shares such as REE, SAM, HAP, AGF and VNM, increased between 30-57 percent.

The number of investors wanting to open more accounts and engage in transaction activities soared rapidly at securities companies.

As many as 200 transaction orders are conducted a day at the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development in HCM City while the figure was only 20 on average in 2005.

The number of people asking to open accounts also increased by 50 percent.

Several investors who previously kept their eyes on stock price indexes or ordered transactions via the Internet or telephone now regularly come to the trading floor to set orders as soon as possible. So far, the total number of stock exchange accounts has hit 50,000.

Since early this year, many capital inflows have been prepared to pour into the securities market. The Vietnam Opportunity Fund has increased its capital by an additional US$76 million, bringing its total level to US$171 million. The Mekong Capital Fund is preparing to establish a second investment fund with total investment capital of US$40 million. To win market share, many domestic organisations have participated in securities investment.

Vietcombank has co-operated with a Singaporean enterprise to set up an investment fund called VCBF. The Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) also co-operated with an American partner to establish the BVP Fund. The funds have total capital of hundreds of US dollars.

In addition, many securities companies have also increased their legal capital by 1.5-2 times to gain more equity capital. A boom in foreign investment capital from financial organisations has attracted thousands of individual investors to open bank accounts and participate in the stock market in Vietnam.

Vietnam’s bourse has operated for only just over five years, so investors have little experience in the stock market. There are many amateur inexperienced investors participating in trading shares. When the price of shares increases sharply, many of them flock to purchase shares but they are not aware of the risk in the future. Director of the HCM City Securities Joint Stock Company Do Hung Viet said foreign investors should be careful in purchasing shares. In fact, professional investors have gained large profits in the current price fever of shares while amateur investors risked suffering losses rather than profits.