stock market

MSCI has removed Vietnam’s EVN Finance and Petrovietnam Nhon Trach shares from its Frontier Markets Index as part of its August Index Review. On the flip side, it has added Vietnam’s Binh Duong Water and Nam A Bank to the index. Of note, Vietnam’s stock market indexes have been in the news a lot lately as the country pushes for an upgrade from a frontier to an emerging market. There are, however, a number of obstacles still standing in the local bourse’s path before an upgrade can be made.

Foreign investors, however, followed their own path, using the increased local demand to net-dump 1,935,886 shares worth around US$72 million. This has further diminished foreign ownership in the firm–at the start of last year foreign investors held about 24.30 percent of Vinhomes shares, that number has since come down to just 15.08 percent. ..

Prior to Quyet’s arrest, FLC had been a major real estate developer in Vietnam. The company had properties all over Vietnam as well as an airline–Bamboo Airways–with Quyet at one point reportedly a US dollar billionaire. Well known in Vietnam–idolised by some for his business savvy–his arrest drew a lot of media coverage and his trial has too.

That single IPO was Hanoi-based DNSE Securities which officially listed under the ticker DSE on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange at the start of July. Notably, this was the first new listing of a securities firm on the local bourse in the last five years…

An additional 106,417 stock trading accounts were opened in Vietnam in June, according to data from the Vietnam Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation. Of those, individual foreign investors accounted for 159 individual accounts with 27 for foreign organisations. The total number of active trading accounts in Vietnam is now 8,044,825, but this number is a little misleading…

Contrary to the trend of foreign investors net selling billions of dollars from HoSE in 2024, foreign investors have been net buyers of DSE shares. Notably, Consilium Investment Management from the USA net bought more than US$ 6.6 million shares on July 2, accounting for more than 2 percent of DNSE’s value. Earlier in January, Finland’s Pyn Elite Fund also invested in DNSE buying 12 percent of the firm’s equity. As of July 5, foreign investors held 13 percent of DNSE’s shares–as a securities firm there is no foreign ownership limit…

Information disclosures on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange have been cited by key stock market index makers FTSE Russell and MSCI as one criteria holding the local bourse back from being upgraded from frontier to emerging. The irony here is that these securities firms stand to probably benefit the most from a stock market upgrade…

Prior to Quyet’s arrest, FLC had been a major real estate developer in Vietnam. The company had properties all over Vietnam as well as an airline–Bamboo Airways–with Quyet at one point reportedly a US dollar billionaire. Well known in Vietnam–idolised by some for his business savvy–his arrest drew a lot of media coverage and his trial will likely too…

It’s worth noting that a lot of Vietnamese firms are carrying a lot of debt and there is increasing pressure on the local currency that is only being kept at bay through issuing treasury bills and spending US dollar reserves which are being run down pretty quickly. The point being, that It wouldn’t take much for the State Bank to raise interest rates and if that were to happen it would likely do some pretty hefty damage to the VN-Index…

Last year was not a great year for the Vietnam Stock Exchange. Interest in the market as a means of raising capital was lacklustre with just three IPOs completed by the end of November worth just US$7 million. Furthermore, foreign investors exited the market to the tune of over US$1 billion as greater global uncertainty weighted heavily on the local bourse.

In 2018, SK group bought 109.9 million shares in Masan Group for VND 100,000  or US$4.29 per share for a total of just over US$470 million. Masan, which trades under the ticker MSN, closed at VND 76,200 or US$2.99 Friday valuing the company’s holding at about US$328.6 million. A sizable loss if sold at current prices. SK Group, however, reportedly has a put option whereby it can sell its shares back to the firm at the price in paid back in 2018. It seems unusual that SK Group would not exercise this option under the current circumstances…

Both investments have lost considerable value since SK Group bought into these firms in 2018. Of note, SK Group bought 205.7 million shares in Vingroup–which trades under the ticker VIC–in 2019 for VND 113,000 or US$4.85 at the time for just shy of US$1 billion dollars.  Vingroup shares last traded at VND 41,650 or US$1.64 valuing the firm’s current holding at US$337.4 million…

This net selling momentum hasn’t been limited to Fubon. Foreign investors in general have been net sellers in the Vietnamese market, of late. From the beginning of 2024 until June 17, foreign investors hadhave net sold US$1.7 billion worth of Vietnamese securities listed on HoSE…