The southern bourse will classify shares using the Global Industry Classification Standard. — Illustrative photo vinacorp.vn

HCM CITY (Biz Hub) — The HCM City Stock Exchange (HOSE) this week announced the classification of listed companies into industries, launching 10 sector indices using the Global Industry Classification Standard.

The industry taxonomy, better known as GICS, was developed by portfolio management tools provider MSCI and financial services company Standard & Poor's (S&P) for use by the global financial community.

Its structure consists of 10 sectors, 24 industry groups, 68 industries and 154 sub-industries, into which S&P has categorised all major public companies, according to the southern exchange.

The 10 indices launched by the HOSE include VNAllshare Financials Ex Real Estate, VNAllshare Consumer Staples, VNAllshare Real Estate, VNAllshare Industrials and VNAllshare Materials.

The others are VNAllshare Consumer Discretionary, VNAllshare Utilities, VNAllshare Energy, VNAllshare Health Care and VNAllshare Information Technology.

HOSE Deputy General Director Tran Anh Dao told online newspaper enternews.vn that the application of GICS would provide the domestic bourse with "a common language" in the global stock market.

It would help investors – especially investment funds – analyse and develop their portfolios more efficiently, and promote foreign investors' ability to access Viet Nam, she said.

The HOSE said that following its agreement with MSCI, the organisation and S&P would directly classify listed companies. This would assure transparency in the local market while it integrated more deeply into global ones.

According to the HOSE, GICS is currently used by most global stock exchanges, covering more than 43,000 companies and 50,000 codes of securities, which account for roughly 95 per cent of total global market capitalisation.

More than US$9.6 trillion in worldwide assets is also benchmarked to MSCI indices using GICS. — VNS