Fubon FTSE Vietnam, which is a Taiwanese exchange-traded fund, has seen a net withdrawal of about US$95 million since the beginning of 2024 from the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, known locally as the HoSE. Fubon, however, still remains the biggest ETF in Vietnam with a net asset value of US$749 million as of Monday.
Said withdrawal saw Fubon sell shares of several of its largest holdings, including Hoa Phat Steel, Vingroup, Vinhomes, Vietcombank, and Masan Group, which trade under the tickers HPG, VIC, VHM, VCB, MSN, respectively. On the other hand, the fund bought shares in VNDirect Securities, Kinh Do Group, and Vinaconex which trade under the tickers VND, KDC and VCG, according to The Investor.
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 had net sold US$1.7 billion worth of Vietnamese securities listed on HoSE.
Furthermore, last week, BlackRock, a US investment firm announced it intends to liquidate its iShares Frontier and Select EM ETF. About 29 percent of the fund, worth $119.5 million as of June 10, is invested in Vietnamese stocks and cash on Vietnam Stock Exchanges.
The Director of Analysis, at Yuanta Securities, Nguyen The Minh, told Tien Phong earlier this month that the selling momentum of foreign investors is due to exchange rate pressure, concerns about a strengthening US dollar, rising inflation, and the interest rate disparity between Vietnam and the US. This is in line with the challenges reported earlier this year by the-shiv see: Vietnam’s Foreign Investor Stock Sell-Off: Unpacked 2024