The Vietnamese stock market has been performing well since the beginning of the new year and analysts believe that ‘well begun is half done’, predicting a prosperous 2024. The VN-Index increased by 24 points in the last 10 days, empowered by bank shares.

The liquidity in the market increased to VND20 trillion per trading session.

However, the good performance was not seen in all shares. While bank shares saw bustling trade, the shares of enterprises in other business fields are under pressure of decline. The liquidity of different bank shares also varies.

This has led to changes in billionaires’ pockets. All six dollar billionaires listed by Forbes have seen their assets drop by $100 million each.

As of January 15, according to Forbes, the assets of the richest Vietnamese billionaire – Pham Nhat Vuong – had dropped to $4.5 billion from $4.6 billion, as reported at the first trading session of the new year. If compared with March 2023, the assets of the president of Vingroup have dropped by $1.7 billion.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Dang Quang has been once again excluded from Forbes’ list of billionaires. Prior to that, the president of Masan Group had been on the list with asset value of $1 billion as shown on January 3.

Quang has been in and out of the list over the last several years with asset fluctuations. The value of the stocks he holds ranged between $1-1.9 billion. A peak of $1.9 billion was reported in April 2022.

Masan shares (MSN) are under pressure of decline. In the last 10 trading sessions, MSN saw price decreases at six sessions. MSN is being traded at VND65,600 per share, a fall from the VND100,000 per share one year ago.

Masan became one of the largest consumer manufacturing and retail groups after it took over the Vinmart retail chain from Vuong.

Analysts say that the company has positive prospects long term, but faced difficulties in 2023 due to weak demand.

Reports show that Quang holds only 15 MSN shares. However, he is indirectly holding a large amount of MSN through Masan JSC and Hoa Huong Duong, equal to 45 percent of total shares. The businessman also holds 9.4 million Techcombank shares (TCB), Masan Consumer (MCH) and Masan Horizon Co Ltd shares. Meanwhile, Quang’s wife, Nguyen Hoang Yen, has 42 million MSN.

Besides Vuong and Quang, other billionaires have also seen their assets decreasing.

The assets of Vietjet President Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao have dropped by $100 million compared with January 3 to $2.3 billion by January 15. Hoa Phat Group president Tran Dinh Long’s assets dropped to $2.2 billion, and Thaco president Tran Ba Duong dropped $100 million to $1.4 billion.

Techcombank president Ho Hung Anh’s assets fell from $1.4 billion to $1.3 billion. Anh is the only one to see assets decrease despite share price increases. TCB share price increased from VND32,600 per share on January 3 to VND34,300 by January 15.

Pham Nhat Vuong is another special case. According to Forbes, Vuong had $4.5 billion by January 15, but according to Bloomberg Billionaire Index, the richest billionaire had $8.49 billion by that time, ranked 277th in the world.

Bloomberg has placed Vuong on the list of the top 500 dollar billionaires since January 3, after counting Vuong’s assets formed from VinFast Auto.

Prior to that, Bloomberg for many months did not count the assets of VinFast Auto. The automobile manufacturer listed 2.3 billion shares on Nasdaq last August. The prices of the shares have been fluctuating heavily. When entering publicly, the shares were traded at $23 per share. Later, the prices soared to $90 per share and have dropped sharply since then, bottoming out at $5 at times.

These six billionaires listed by Forbes have also been included on the list of top 10 billionaires released by Vietnamese media. The other names include Bui Thanh Nhon (who was once named in Forbes’ list), Vu Thi Hien (Long’s wife), Truong Gia Binh (FPT president) and Nguyen Van Dat from PDR.

The VN-Index increased by 12 percent in 2023.

Manh Ha