About 190 foreign investors were granted securities trading codes in February, bringing the total number of foreign investors participating in Viet Nam’s securities market to 29,454, according to statistics of the Viet Nam Securities Depository (VSD).

The number of new foreign investors joining the securities market in February was the lowest since January 2017, 75 fewer than January and 261 fewer than the same month last year, VSD said.

Foreign investors sold a net volume of 27.74 million shares in February but bought a net value of more than VND1 trillion (US$42 million), dropping by more than 36 per cent against January.

As of the end of February, VDS had so far granted securities trading codes to 4,151 institutional investors and 25,303 individual investors.

VDS granted 5,537 securities trading codes to foreign investors in 2018, 2,300 higher than 2017.

In 2018, foreign investors pumped a net value of $41.7 trillion into Viet Nam’s securities market, a rise of 61.3 per cent.

Viet Nam’s stock market was expected to attract more foreign capital when it was upgraded from frontier market status to emerging, according to Bao Viet Securities Company. — VNS