The net foreign investment in Viet Nam’s securities market was estimated to increase by 80 per cent, year-on-year, to US$1.45 billion in the first nine months of 2017.

This was predicted by the National Financial Supervision Commission (NFSC). In its recent nine-month financial and economic report, the NFSC said that the total foreign investment pouring into the securities market included $790 million for bonds and $660 million for stocks.

The net foreign purchase for securities assets in September was estimated at $57 million, including $12 for stocks and $45 million for bonds, NFSC said.

The central-level financial supervision agency reported that the total market value of shares purchased by foreign investors was estimated at $27.3 billion, an increase of 33.8 per cent from the end of 2016.

Foreign investors have purchased 19.2 per cent of the total shares on the stock market and 5.3 per cent of the total bonds on the bond market, NFSC said.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange has passed the 800-point level on the back of large-cap stocks but trading liquidity has remained weak.

The value of the stock market as of September 2017 was equal to 60 per cent of Viet Nam’s gross domestic product (GDP), NFSC reported.

Since it was launched on August 10, the derivatives market has been well supported by investors but foreign investors were still unwilling to take part in the new market’s trading, NFSC said.

Foreign trading between August 10 and September 22 was equal to only 0.07 per cent of the market’s total trading value on the derivatives market.

According to NFSC, mobilised capital from the Government bond market in September was low as the interest rates were bottoming and demand for long-term Government bonds with a maturity of 15 years or more had declined strongly.

In the first nine months, the State Treasury of Viet Nam raised more than VND147 trillion ($6.53 billion) from the Government bond issuance, completing 81.7 per cent of its year plan. — VNS