The first Vietnamese ETF is expected to list on the HCM City Stock Exchange in mid September.— Photo xaluan.com

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Viet Nam's first domestic exchange-traded fund (ETF), the VietFund Management VN30 ETF, planned to list on the HCM City Stock Exchange by mid September, fund Director Pham Khanh Lynh said.

An ETF is a fund traded on the stock market. And most ETFs track an index like stock and bond indexes, a commodity, or a basket of assets like an index fund. Securities experts considered ETFs an attractive investment because of their benefits like market exposure, low costs, high transparency, no foreign ownership limit, and trading like a single listed stock. Domestic ETFs are allowed to invest in all kinds of shares while foreign ones are constrained by foreign ownership limits. An investor with a modest sum of money can still diversify his portfolio by acquiring ETF certificates. Four foreign ETFs have invested almost US$1 billion in equities in Viet Nam. They are DB X-trackers FTSE Vietnam, Market Vectors Vietnam Index, MSCI Frontier Markets Index, and IShares MSCI Frontier 100 Index.— VNS

Lynh told baodautu.vn on August 8 that the fund, which was allowed to raise at least VND50 billion (US$2.35 million) from its initial public offering (IPO) from July 21 to August 20, has already collected the minimum amount.

After August 20, the fund needed 20 to 30 days to complete all the registration procedures at the State Securities Commission and the HCM City Stock Exchange.

As a result, the fund is expected to list there in September. VFMVN30 will have a passive investment strategy to carry out its investment objectives, simply tracking the performance of the VN30 Index.

Among the fund investment list, Vingroup shares (VIC) ranked on top with 11.15 per cent of the stake, Vinamilk shares (VNM) ranked second with 10.28 per cent stake. Following were shares of Massan Group (MSN), Sai Gon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (STB), Hoa Phat Group (HPG) and FPT Group (FPT).

Also, on the same day, the Saigon Securities Inc began raising the minimum VND 50 billion (US$2.35 million) for its ETF named SSI Sustainable Competitive Advantage Fund from an IPO that started from August 8 and will be open until September 8.

SSI said the fund, which was managed by experienced and successful SSI Asset Management Company would give investors one of the best choices in the market—VNS