Vietnam's benchmark stock-market index had its best week in nearly 31 months in spite of a more than two-day shutdown for a "technical issue" that frustrated traders and raised questions about the reliability of the exchange. On Friday, the VN Index hit its highest since May 2007 and neared the record set in March that year. It climbed more than 1 percent on Thursday and Friday, the first days after the shutdown, and had a weekly gain of 5.04 percent - its biggest since the week ended July 3, 2015.
The technical glitch, which halted trading minutes before Monday's scheduled closing, illustrated the kinds of risks that investors in new or fast-growing markets can face. Last year, Vietnam was among the world's fastest rising markets, with the benchmark leaping nearly 50 percent. Market capitalisation jumped 75 percent in 2017, and is up 14 percent so far this year, to $132 billion, according to exchange data.
For sure, Monday's abrupt halt to trade - and the market's closure the next two days - tested patience. "Clients yelled at me a lot, I had loads of transactions undone," one Hanoi-based trader said of the trading halt.
The shutdown at the main Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) was caused by an error in the match-order trading software. "Such issues should not happen," said Gil Hecht, CEO of Continuity Software, a New York-based firm which tests computer systems for financial institutions.
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