Stock market recovering strongly: Experts

Illustrative image (Source: VNA)

Hanoi - Vietnam’s stock market has recovered quickly and strongly since the COVID-19 outbreak was brought under control and losses incurred earlier in the year have been reclaimed, a discussion in Hanoi on October 21 heard.

Ta Thanh Binh, Director of the Securities Market Development Department at the State Securities Commission of Vietnam (SSC), said 2020 has been a year full of changes for the stock market and noted that the benchmark VN-Index lost 33 percent in the first quarter.

But the market has bounced back and recovery is “very positive”. It has regained what was lost at the beginning of the year, and market capitalisation currently accounts for 71.3 percent of GDP, she said.

Pointing out that COVID-19 remains a complex issue around the world, Bui Hoang Hai, Director of the SSC’s Securities Public Offering Management Department, said the stock market is operating within the “new normal”. Liquidity has been higher than expectations.

However, he went on, capital mobilisation has been hampered, with the sum raised equivalent to just 51 percent of last year’s figure, due in part to foreign investors being unable to enter Vietnam to consider potential investment opportunities because of COVID-19.

In terms of the ratio of foreign investment to total market cap in Southeast Asia, Vietnam is behind only Singapore and Thailand. Another positive point is that the country is now on the watch list for upgrading to secondary emerging market status, by market rating agencies FTSE and MSCI, Ha noted.

Securities expert Nguyen Duc Khanh highlighted a surge of new accounts being opened by inpidual investors since the second quarter, although the number is still modest compared to the size of the population.

There remains huge space for Vietnam’s stock market to grow and the opportunities are numerous for investors, he said, suggesting that investors choose sectors exhibiting good growth, to minimise risks.

He predicts the market will rebound to 990-1,000 points by the end of the year.