The General Director of Saigon-Hanoi Securities, Nguyen Chi Thanh, has suggested either September 2 or around the Lunar New Year in 2025 as a possible launch date for the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange’s new trading system. Nguyen says that the firm is still waiting on documentation and guidance from the exchange and that this is confusing investors.
News in recent weeks has suggested that the stock exchange, traders, and authorities are out of step on when the new system can go live.
Of note the exchange said that the KRX trading system, imported from South Korea, would go live on May 2, however, this was promptly shut down by the State Securities Commission on the grounds that the exchange had failed to provide evidence trading firms were ready for the new system and because it hasn’t consulted all relevant stakeholders.
There has been no update from the exchange as to when it might like to launch the new system which has led to speculation from key stakeholders like that which forms the basis of this article.
Currently classified as a frontier market by the two key rating agencies—FTSE Russell and MSCI–Vietnam has been actively courting an upgrade. Part of the challenge is that the current trading system does not have the technical capabilities to meet several of the two firms’ criteria. Hence, the new system being provided by Korea–the KRX. It was, however, supposed to be operational as far back as 2015 but has been repeatedly pushed back.
See also: Vietnam’s Stock Market Upgrade Opportunity: Unpacked