Domestic individual investors opened nearly 2.6 million securities accounts in 2022, exceeding the total number of new accounts opened during six years from 2016 to 2021 combined, according to data from the Viet Nam Securities Depository (VSD).

By the end of 2022, the number of individual investor accounts in the country had surpassed 6.8 million, equivalent to about 6.8 per cent of the population, VSD said.

Domestic investors opened 98,942 new securities accounts in December, a slight increase compared to the previous month. Individual investors opened 98,785 new accounts and institutional investors opened 157 new accounts. This was the 3rd month in a row that the number of new accounts opened by domestic investors remained below 100,000.

Notably, 2022 was a volatile year for the Vietnamese stock market. For the first time in history, VN-Index surpassed 1,500 points, then the index even dipped below 900 points in mid-November. At the end of 2022, the index decreased by 32.78 per cent compared to the end of 2021, recording the strongest decline in 14 years and also the 2nd sharpest decline in history after 2008.

However, positive signals appeared in the last months of the year as trading started to be more active. According to statistics, the average matching value on HoSE in December reached nearly VND12.1 trillion (US$516 million), up nearly 23 per cent compared to the previous month. In particular, in the first half of the month, the market even recorded a trading session with the matching value nearing $1 billion.

The recovery of liquidity was attributed to a significant contribution from foreign investors' transactions, especially in the first half of the month. In December, foreign investors continued to net buy VND12.8 trillion through order matching channel on HoSE. This trend is continuing in the early days of 2023.

For the whole of 2022, foreign investors net bought up to VND29 trillion in the whole market, of which the net buying value on HoSE reached VND26.7 trillion.

In December, foreign investors opened 253 new accounts, up 17 per cent from the previous month. This is the 3rd month in a row that the number of new accounts opened by foreign investors increased after unexpectedly closing accounts in September. In terms of structure, individual investors opened 225 new accounts while institutional investors opened 28 new accounts in the last month of the year.

As of November 30, 2022, foreign investors have a total of 42,711 accounts. — VNS