While people in the US has been focusing on Lehman’s ‘unexpected’ loss and its ‘unexpected’ need to raise capital, Vietnam’s stock market has declined more than 20 days in a row. Since there’s a trading band of +/- 2% on the index, the index decreases ~1.5% every day since May.
When stock market started to decline since last Oct. for Vietnam, a lot of people instead went to speculate on the real estate market. Now with interest rate very high, and talk of currency devaluation intensified, the real estate market has been frozen as well. In short, the banking system, currency, and economy of Vietnam is under severe strain, and Asian countries are talking about the Vietnam market every day now.
As mentioned before, I believe the situation presents great investment opportunities. Nonetheless, it’s very dangerous to try catching a falling knife, but close observation and monitoring of the situation will one day signal reversal of the trend, leading to good investment opportunity.
