1. There are 249 share and fund certificate items listed on the HCM City Stock Exchange and Hanoi Securities Trading Centre (138 on HOSE and 111 on HASTC). The number of listed companies just account for 2% of total joint stock companies now operational in Vietnam. This is a very low ratio.
 
Investors on trading floors

Two things need to be done to improve this number. First, Vietnam needs to speed up equitisation of State-owned and foreign invested limited enterprises. Second, it is necessary to create ideal conditions for joint stock banks to list on the official bourse.

There are 74 operational securities companies now, while there were 55 in 2006 and 14 in 2005. There are 24 investment fund management companies now, while there were 18 in 2006 and 6 in 2005.

2. There are 5.5bil shares listed on the official bourse, double that of 2006 and 15 times higher than 2005.

3. Total market capitalization value has reached VND491tril ($30.7bil; VND361tril in HCM City and VND130tril in Hanoi). This figure is equal to 43% of GDP, a relatively high level for the stock market, which was born just seven years ago. However, the figure of $30.7bil proves to be very small when compared to the regional and global market.

4. The number of listed companies has been quickly rising over the last few years, but few major companies are among them. There are only 70 listed companies which have a market capitalization value exceeding VND1tril ($62.5mil; 53 in HCM City and 17 in Hanoi), and only 12 of which have a market capitalization value exceeding VND10tril ($625mil).

The 12 include 9 in HCM City: VNM (CND29,400bil), STB (VND28,700bil), DPM (VND27,500bil), FPT (VND20,400bil), SSI (VND19,800bil), PPC (VND19tril), PVD (VND16.3tril), HPG (VND12.4tril), HPG (VND12.4tril), VIC (VND12.4tril); and 3 in Hanoi: ACB (VND42.6tril or $2.7bil), KBC (VND17.8tril), PVS (VND11.9tril).

The company with the highest market capitalization value is ACB with only $2.7bil, small when compared to global conglomerates.

5. Some 307,000 accounts have been opened by securities investors (each investor is allowed to open only one account), accounting for less than 0.4% of total population. This number falls far below other regional nations (7% in China).

In developed stock markets, institutional investors account for 70% and individuals account for only 30%, while these numbers are clearly different in Vietnam - only 30% institutional investors. The majority of capital for securities investments comes from bank loans. Investors rush to sell shares when prices fall because they fear that they will not have the capital to pay debts.

Source: VNAgency.