After 30 years of war, many older Vietnamese came to prefer buying gold to amass their wealth instead of depositing cash in banks or making investments. The sense of insecurity toward the banking system also led to an active underground financial market in the country.
But as Vietnam marches toward a more market-oriented economy, "the situation is changing," said Le Chi Thu Khoa, deputy manager of Ho Chi Minh City Securities Trading Center's administrative department, pointing behind him at a long line of people queuing to open securities accounts.
"Our people have more confidence in the financial system and are keen to invest in the rapid growing stock market to gain their wealth," Le said.
The Vietnamese securities market has been one of the best-performing markets in recent months. The benchmark VN-Index rose for an eighth straight day to a record high of 914.79 points on Friday, one day after the communist nation became the 150th member of the WTO.
Currently, Vietnam has 106 listed shares, 372 listed bonds, and two listed investment funds for a total of more than 72.3 trillion dong (US$4.51 billion).
Trading is conducted daily with three matchings in a morning session, from 8:20am to 11am.
Though most listed companies are state-owned enterprises, an increasing number of foreign companies are showing interest in trading on the bourse, and Taiwanese companies have not missed out on the trend.
Tung Kuang Industrial Co (
The Vietnamese government increased the amount of listed shares that foreign investors could hold in an enterprise in Vietnam from 30 percent to 49 percent in September 2005. To boost the market, the government plans to further lift the figure in the near future, Le said.
It also plans to match orders continuously from April, compared with three times daily now, Le said.
The measure, along with improvements in the legal framework and restructuring, would boost the stock market's capitalization to US$20 billion by the end of the year, or 30 percent of GDP.
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