HCMC – Though Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index was down over 33% in 2022, foreign investors have recently injected capital into the market, reversing a three-year stock-selling streak.
During the first trading week of 2023, foreign investors pumped over VND1,720 billion into Vietnamese shares despite a flat market, with nearly 95% of the amount flowing into the southern bourse.
“Continuous net purchases since early November 2022 by foreign investors are attributed to Vietnam’s macroeconomic stability and attractive stock prices,” securities firm VNDirect said in its first weekly trading report in 2023.
Statistics of the Hochiminh Stock Exchange showed that foreign investors put in about VND12,000 billion in December, with trading values nearly doubling over the same period in 2021, bringing the total investment in the Vietnamese market to over VND23,600 billion in 2022.
The 2022 trend was opposite that of the previous two years when foreign investors net sold their shares as the VN-Index repeatedly hit new peaks.
A sharp fall in price levels in mid-November has lured domestic and foreign bottom fishers, with some stocks sold at a price lower than their book value, said Nguyen The Minh, head of the Research and Development Division of Yuanta Securities.
The bottom fishing has saved the market from a steep fall, helping the VN-Index recover from the lowest at 873 points.
