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This study examines accrual earnings management in Vietnamese listed firms around equity issuances. Using a matching approach, we find that issuers tend to report higher earnings by aggressive recognition of discretionary current accruals before and during the years of equity offering. This results in significantly larger abnormal stock returns for the issuing firm-years, as the capital market overvalues firms with higher accrual earnings. However, regression results show that investors are subsequently disappointed by negative reversals in earnings, and suffer from significant negative abnormal returns in the third year after the issuance. These results provide additional empirical evidence in an emerging and transition market context, and caution investors against fixation on reported earnings in equity offerings.