HCM CITY (Biz Hub) — The HCM Stock Exchange plans to create one more index in July for the benefit of investors, fund managers, and securities companies, an exchange official said.

Le Hai Tra, HOSE's standing deputy general director, said the VN-Sector index would be based on the Global Industry Classification Standard developed by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) and Standard & Poor's to help enhance investment research and asset management for financial professionals.

Since GICS is popular among investors around the world, it would help make trading at the HCM City exchange more foreign investor-friendly, he said.

The new index would also help securities companies and fund management firms create new products based on it, he said.

HOSE now has the benchmark VN Index and VN AllShare, VN 100, VN Midcap, and VN Smallcap indices.

MSCI is a premier provider of global indexes and benchmark-related products and services, while S&P is an international financial data and investment services company and a leading provider of global equity indexes.

Tra hoped that with the foreign ownership limit in listed firms (currently 49 per cent, and 30 per cent in banks) yet to be raised, allowing foreign investors to buy NVDR (non-voting depository receipt) shares in companies where the limit has been reached would make the market more attractive for them.

Last year trading was worth VND536.462 trillion (US$25.3 billion), around twice the 2013 figure.

Foreign investors' buying totalled VND68.48 trillion and selling, VND65.59 trillion. The figures in 2013 had been VND44.68 trillion and VND39.18 trillion. —VNS