Over 18,500 foreign stock investors granted trading codes in Vietnam

A file photo of Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper shows an investor tracking his investment portfolio via a tablet
at the transaction office of a securities firm in Ho Chi Minh City.

The VSD said in a report earlier this month that it had provided trading codes for 661 foreign institutional investors and 277 international individuals in the first eleven months of this year, the highest number of individual foreign investors licensed since 2011.

Vietnam continues to welcome more foreign investors opening securities trading accounts three months after the prime minister’s decision to scrap a foreign ownership cap in many Vietnamese listed firms took effect, the depository said.

In July Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung decided to scrap the 49 percent foreign ownership limit across many listed firms, starting in September.

However the foreign cap of 49 percent will still apply to areas where ‘conditions’ are placed on foreign investments, except for sectors governed by separate ownership regulations, such as banking, where total foreign stakes are limited to 30 percent.

According to the VDS, in November alone, the agency supplied trading codes to 95 foreign investors, including 24 organizations and 71 individuals.

It has approved changes for 25 foreign investors, including six organizations and 19 individuals, and the cancelation of securities trading codes for one foreign organization.

In November, foreign investors on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) and the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) acquired 180 million shares in total, worth more than VND6.46 trillion (US$284.24 million), while selling over 170 million shares, worth nearly VND6.84 trillion ($300.96 million).

On the HoSE, foreign investors were in net-selling mood with 744,980 shares worth VND491 billion ($21.6 million) in November, after an opposite move of over VND1.128 trillion ($49.63 million) in October.

In the first 11 months, foreign investors maintained their net-buying mood on the HoSE with more than VND4.1 trillion ($180.4 million), corresponding to a net-buying volume of more than 292.8 million shares.

Contrary to the situation at the HoSE, foreign investors on the HNX in November remained in positive mood with a net-buying volume of 10.66 million shares worth more than VND114.3 billion ($5 million), up 2.8 times in value month on month.

Therefore, from the beginning of 2015, foreigners on the HNX had seven months of net-buying and four months of net-selling, with a total net purchase value of over VND926.4 billion ($40.76), representing a net-buying volume of more than 80.9 million shares.