Vietnam Stock Market Indexes: Ultimate Guide 2024

The Vietnam stock market index most commonly used is the VN-Index. This is made up of a basket of stocks listed on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange–or HoSE for short–and is published and analysed in most major news publications in Vietnam daily by a range of Vietnam’s securities industry analysts.

That said, there are several other stock marker indexes in Vietnam, both domestic and foreign, that track different aspects of Vietnam’s key stock exchanges.

This article breaks down several key stock market indexes including the VN-Index, the VN30, the HNX, the HNX30, the MSCI Vietnam Small Cap Index, MSCI Vietnam Index (USD), FTSE Vietnam All-Share Index, and the FTSE Vietnam Index.

HoSE Indexes

The HoSE is Vietnam’s biggest stock exchange with about 400 companies with a total market capitalisation of US$172 billion as of October of 2023. The HoSE is currently considered a frontier market with several reforms to the Law on Securities needed before it can be upgraded to an emerging market. This, however, has not deterred foreign investors with a number of international securities firms buying into the market both directly and through exchange-traded funds.

The HoSE itself tracks the market through several indexes. The two most well-known are the VN-Index and the VN30.

VN-Index

The VN-Index contains all of the stocks listed on the HoSE. These are weighted based on their market capitalisation and provide a broad overview of the stock market. This index is the most well-known and the most widely reported in the media.

VN30

Aside from the VN-Index, the other major Vietnam stock market index is the VN30.

The VN30 is an index of 30 stocks listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange based on their market capitalization, free float, and liquidity. Essentially, key decision makers at the HoSE:

• Take the top 50 stocks by market capitalisation on the stock exchange;
• Remove any stocks with a free-float ratio of less than five percent; and then
• Sort them by their average daily transaction value over the preceding six months.

The top 30 on this list then form the VN30 for the next six months–This is adjusted on the fourth Monday in January and July each year. 

List of stocks in the VN30, August 2024

Source: Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange | VN30 stock basket

MSCI

Morgan Stanley Capital International–or MSCI–has several key stock market indexes that include stocks listed on the HoSE.

MSCI Vietnam Index

The MSCI Vietnam Index includes 56 stocks that cover about 85 percent of the value of the HoSE. As of July 2024, the Vietnam Index was divided by real estate at 25.06 percent, financials at 24.78 percent, consumer staples at 17.22 percent, materials at 16.09 percent, and industrials at 9.68 percent.

Top 10 stocks, July 2024, by weighting

MSCI Vietnam Small Cap Index

A total of 121 constituents make up the MSCI Vietnam Small Cap Index. Overall this Vietnam stock market index, as of July 2024, was divided by real estate at 14.35 percent, financials at 12.73 percent, consumer staples at 10.53 percent, materials at 12.69 percent, and industrials at 32.29 percent.

Top 10 stocks, July 2024, by weighting

Source: MSCI Vietnam Small Cap Index – Factsheet

MSCI Frontier Markets Index

In July of 2024, Vietnam accounted for 25.39 percent of the market capitalization of the MSCI Frontier Markets Index. This put Vietnam well ahead of the next closest market which was Romania with 13.67 percent. 

Vietnam’s contribution in terms of stocks is Vinhomes and Hoa Phat Group.

Of note, Vietnam has been actively courting an upgrade from MSCI from frontier to emerging, however, the HoSE still lags on a number of fronts. 

In June, MSCI released its 2024 Global Market Accessibility Review in which Vietnam’s stock market conditions for foreign inventors had improved slightly. 

Specifically, the review noted that Vietnam “had an improvement in its rating for the Transferability criterion on the back of increased uptake for off-exchange and in-kind transactions following regulation changes.”

FTSE Russell

FTSE Russell tracks the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange through several indexes.

FTSE Vietnam All-Share Index

The FTSE Vietnam All-Share Index is a broad index of the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange. The top 10 stocks included in the index, as of July 2024, made up 50.25 percent of this Vietnam stock market index. These stocks covered industrials, telecommunications, real estate, food, banks, and retail. In total, there were 62 stocks included in the index with a collective market capitalisation of about US$4.3 billion.

Top 10 stocks, July 2024, by weighting

FTSE Vietnam Index

The FTSE Vietnam Index is made up of stocks included in the Vietnam All-Share Index that have stock available for purchase by foreign investors. The top five constituents of this Vietnam stock market index, as of July 2024, were Hoa Phat Group which is most well known for steel production; real estate developer, Vinhomes; Vingroup, the parent company of Vinhomes along with a number of other companies in fields as diverse as electric cars to universities; Vietcombank; and Vietnam Dairy Products more commonly known as Vinamilk.

Top 5 stocks, July 2024

Source: FTSE Vietnam Index Series

FTSE Frontier Index

The FTSE Frontier Index tracks the least developed global markets. Of note, 99 constituents on the index were from Vietnam with Vietnam accounting for 35.70 percent of the market capitalization of the index in July of 2024. The next closest country was Morocco covering 15.81 percent.

Note that Vietnam is currently on the FTSE Russell watchlist for a potential upgrade from frontier to secondary emerging market. The two key criteria currently holding Vietnam’s biggest exchange back are settlement costs and the time between delivery and payment.

S&P Dow Jones

S&P Dow Jones has a number of indexes that include stocks listed on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange.

S&P Frontier Broad Market Index (BMI)

Like FTSE Russle and MSCI, S&P Global maintains an index of frontier markets–the S&P Frontier BMI. As of July 2024, Vietnam had 85 stocks included in the index with a combined market capitalization of US$121.3 million. This gave Vietnam the second highest weighting on the index accounting for 11.7 percent. It trailed only Argentina at 33.3 percent.

S&P Vietnam BMI

S&P also maintains the S&P Vietnam BMI. This Vietnam stock market index contains 85 stocks with the top ten constituents accounting for 50 percent of the total market capitalization. By sector, financials had the biggest weighting with 23.5 percent followed by real estate with 24.1 percent. The top five were rounded out by consumer staples, materials, and industrials rounding out the five with 15.7 percent, 16.3 percent, and 12.4 percent, respectively. This was current as of July 2024.

Top 10 stocks by weight, July 2024

HNX Indexes

The less well-known stock market in Vietnam is the Hanoi Stock Exchange. This deals mostly with bonds but also functions as a stepping stone for companies looking to list on the HoSE through its Unlisted Public Companies Market–UPCom. Trading on the HNX is much more limited than the HoSE but it does still have a couple of key Vietnam stock market indexes of note.

HNX Index

The HNX Index tracks the value of shares trading on the Hanoi Stock Exchange. It consists of listed stocks that have a free float greater than 5 percent.

HNX 30

Stocks are selected to be included in the HNX 30 based on market capitalization adjusted relative to the transferability of their shares. The HNX 30 has a maximum capitalization rate of 15 percent. Stocks are selected for the HNX 30 based on:

• Average daily trading value;
• Free float market capitalisation;
• Liquidity; and
• The discretion of the Index Council.

Of the stocks that meet the criteria, the top 30 are selected, with a maximum of 20 percent of stocks from any single industry.

What’s next?

Vietnam stock market indices are many and varied. Each gives a unique glimpse into how Vietnam’s stock markets are performing both in isolation and in the context of the wider world. This overview of each of these key Vietnam stock market indexes should provide a broad understanding of those key indexes and how they are compiled. Changes to the index can also be followed via the Vietnam Stock Market Tracker.

Change, however, with respect to Vietnam’s status as a frontier market, may be afoot. An upgrade to an emerging market would likely lead to a significant change to Vietnam’s stock market indexes and a surge in investment, however, this may still be some time away.

To keep track of changes in the Vietnam stock market, investors should make sure to subscribe to the-shiv.

Last updated: August 24, 2024