Net fund outflows ease in April as Vingroup rally polarises performance

According to a monthly report by FiinGroup, funds operating across the country recorded a total net outflow of over $60 million in April. This represents a sharp 70.7 per cent decline compared to March, marking the lowest monthly net cash drain since August last year.

Specifically, the net outflow from equity funds plunged by 94.2 per cent on-month to nearly $7.28 million during the period, cushioned by easing redemption pressures across both ETFs and closed-end funds.

Conversely, bond funds experienced a net outflow of over $52 million during the month, despite a slight improvement in the group’s overall returns.

Regarding performance, equity funds achieved an average return of 2.2 per cent on-month in April, a major reversal from the 9 per cent contraction recorded in March. The rebound was broad-based, with 81 out of 83 funds posting improved results, buoyed by a sharp 10.7 per cent monthly surge in the VN-Index.

Market gains were highly concentrated, primarily driven by the Vingroup-related ticker family, which includes VIC, VHM, and VRE. Due to this extreme polarisation, only three out of 83 funds managed to outperform or match the VN-Index and VN30 indexes.

The VN30 Index measures the performance of Vietnam's 30 leading large-cap and highly liquid stocks.

Funds with heavy exposure to these specific stocks, particularly certain overseas ETFs and VN30-tracking ETFs, delivered standout performances ranging between 10 and 14 per cent.

Leading the major funds for the month were Xtrackers Vietnam ETF at 14.3 per cent and Fubon FTSE VN ETF at 11.6 per cent. On the contrary, open-ended funds that do not hold VIC-related stocks, such as VinaCapital, saw performance lag the index.

Vietnam ETFs generally outperformed active funds in April and 4M 2026. Source: FiinGroup

During Vinacapital AGM in early May, the investment firm outlined its rationale for excluding Vingroup, citing an excessive projected price-to-earnings ratio over 100 times, which is 10 times VinaCapital’s own fund average, a rising net debt of $10 billion, and an estimated annual capital expenditure of $10 billion.

VinaCapital fund managers noted that this massive investment scale makes it difficult to gauge actual economic efficiency, despite VinFast’s specific $1 billion annual capital allocation.

They also remain cautious on Vinhomes despite its strong operating cash flow, citing a volatile, highly cyclical reliance on wholesale bulk sales to secondary real estate developers.

Conversely, Dragon Capital views the Vingroup surge as entirely rational. Vo Nguyen Khoa Tuan, senior securities business director at the firm, argued that Vingroup’s valuations remain modest when measured against the historical growth trajectory and long-term potential of South Korean chaebols.

By framing Vingroup as Vietnam’s economic parallel to those industrial giants, he noted that VIC and VHM serve as vital private-sector pillars capable of driving the VN-Index past the 1,900-point milestone.

This outlook prompted Dragon Capital’s DCDS equity fund to aggressively increase its Vingroup allocation to nearly 17 per cent of its net asset value in late April.

The fund net-bought 2.24 million VIC shares and 1.27 million VHM shares, while opening a new position of 1.66 million VRE shares. Regardless, the fund still underperformed the VN-Index in April because it remained structurally underweight on Vingroup stocks relative to the index baseline.

Despite these contrasting views, both asset management firms agreed that the net sell-off trend would likely reverse upon the anticipated official upgrading of the Vietnam’s stock market by FTSE in September this year, with MSCI potentially following in the next two to three years.

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