Foreign investors net bought a total VND10.8 trillion (US$464.4 million) worth of local shares from January to September with exchange-traded funds accounting for nearly half of the figure.

Foreign investors net bought VND10.27 trillion on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) and VND1.27 trillion the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM). Meanwhile, they net sold VND730 billion on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX).

Foreign investors tended to withdraw from frontier markets. It is attributed to the volatility of the global financial-equity markets due to the unpredictability of the US-China trade war and worries about the global economic recession. Those factors have forced investors to find safer investment targets such as gold and government bonds.

In the current condition, Viet Nam has emerged as a good destination for ETFs because of its higher-than-expected economic growth and stable exchange rates.

The General Statistics Office (GSO) reported last week local gross domestic product (GDP) climbed nearly 7 per cent in the first three quarters of 2019, reaching its highest level for the last nine years.

The amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) disbursed in nine months rose 7.3 per cent yearly to $14.2 billion.

Eight exchange-traded funds (ETFs) net bought VND4.7 trillion in the nine-month period, or 43.5 per cent of the total figure.

Of the eight ETFs, the US-based VanEck Vectors Vietnam ETF (VNM ETF) has net bought total $83.5 million since the beginning of the year. In its portfolio, Vinhomes, Vingroup and dairy producer Vinamilk are the top three investees.

VNM ETF is followed by the Vietnamese fund VFMVN30 ETF, the South Korean fund KIM Kindex Vietnam VN30 ETF, FTSE Vietnam ETF and SSIAM VNX50 ETF.

Net foreign buying focuses on large-cap stocks such as property firm Vingroup (VIC), Vietcombank (VCB), food and beverage firm Masan (MSN), PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS), Quang Ngai Sugar JSC (QNS) and Minh Phu Seafood Corp (MPC).

Stocks that were net-sold were carrier Vietjet (VJC), the Vietnam Electric Equipment Joint Stock Corporation (GEX), realty firm Vinhomes (VHM), Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities Corporation (SHS) and Binh Son Refining and Petrochemicals Co Ltd (BRS).

Strong foreign purchases for Vietnamese shares have helped boost the three stock indices in nine months.

As of September 30, the benchmark VN-Index gained total 11.6 per cent to stand at 996.56 points from last years end of 892.54 points.

The growth rates for the HNX-Index and UPCom-Index were 0.8 per cent and 7.5 per cent, respectively. — VNS