Five richest families have seen their wealth swell in early 2018 thanks to the boom of Viet Nam’s stock market.

The benchmark VN-Index surpassed the 1,000-point landmark on January 3 after rising 48 per cent in 2017 and is heading to beat the record of 1,027 points in November 2007.

The rankings of the richest people on the stock market have also changed, especially the list of wealthy families, if one includes assets of family members and their related investment companies.

According to data on Cafef.vn, the five richest families have total assets worth over US$1 billion each, namely Pham Nhat Vuong family (VinGroup), Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao family (Vietjet, HDBank), Trinh Van Quyet family (FLC Group, FLC Faros), Tran Dinh Long family (Hoa Phat Group) and Bui Thanh Nhon family (Novaland Investment Group).

Five richest families on the Vietnamese stock market. — Photo cafef.vn

Assets of these five families totalled $12.2 billion based on the value of their stock holdings on the stock market on January 2, 2018.

Ending 2017, total assets of the top 10 richest people on the stock market climbed to VND270.8 trillion (some $12 billion) by the end of 2017, a significant rise compared with the VND96 trillion recorded in 2016-end.

Almost 50 people have wealth of over VND1 trillion.

Except for the Tran Dinh Long and Trinh Van Quyet families whose family members directly hold stocks in their companies, the remaining three families own a number of private investment firms that have stake in their main businesses.

The Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao family established Huong Duong Sunny Investment Co and Sovico Holdings to invest capital in Vietjet Air and HDBank. Similarly, Bui Thanh Nhon owns Novagroup Holdings and Diamon Properties, while Pham Nhat Vuong founded Viet Nam Investment Group. — VNS