The market capitalisation of stocks and fund certificates has seen significant growth this year, equivalent to more than 80 percent of GDP and exceeding the goal set for 2020, according to an official.

The market capitalisation of stocks and fund certificates has seen significant growth this year.

As of September 30, 2018, 739 companies and five fund certificates had been listed on both the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) and Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE), with market capitalisation exceeding 4.34 quadrillion VND (185.9 billion USD), up 23.6 percent compared to the end of 2017, said Vice Chairman of the State Securities Commission (SSC) Pham Hong Son.

An average of more than 6.76 trillion VND (289.6 million USD) worth of shares were traded in each session, up 39.5 percent from last year.

A total 778 firms were traded on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) with the market capitalisation at 774 trillion VND (33.15 billion USD), up 11 percent. Each session on the UPCoM had average trading value of 392 billion VND (16.8 million USD), up 62 percent.

The market value of Government bonds (G-bonds) hit 1 quadrillion VND (42.8 billion USD) in the first nine months of 2018, up 8.6 percent from the end of 2017. Some 9.4 trillion VND (402.66 million USD) were raised from the G-bonds at each auction on average, up 5 percent.

Vietnam has taken moves to improve information disclosure quality and transparency of listed companies on both local exchanges and UPCoM this year, Son said, citing the HNX’s launch of a programme to assess quality and transparency of information disclosure of major firms as an example.

These firms account for about 80 percent of the UPCoM’s capitalisation, many of them State-owned and industry leaders, said HNX Chairman Nguyen Thanh Long.

It is important to encourage them to produce high-quality and transparent disclosure statements to facilitate better corporate governance and more effective operations, Long noted. 

The SSC plans to prioritise maintaining the stability and sustainability and foster the restructuring of the securities market, Son said.

To this end, the Government, Ministry of Finance and SSC will undertake several measures, including speeding up drafting of the revised Law on Securities; further bolstering stock market restructuring on four pillars – financial product restructuring, investor base expansion, market intermediaries restructuring, stock exchange restructuring; increasing supply of financial products and improving their quality; and introducing new products to the market. –VNA