A manager at a foreign-run hotel and part-time MBA student, Nguyen Dung, 26, had never owned shares in a company until recently. But last week, impressed by the spectacular rise of Vietnam's stock market, he invested $650 in an informal pool with 30 of his MBA classmates.

The MBA students have agreed to pool information and tips and invest in a murky - and unregulated - informal market for shares in partially-privatised state-owned companies. To Mr Dung, what to any astute investor in the developed world would seem a risky bet, looks like a sure thing.