Banking & Finance

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) will continue to implement solutions to help Vietnam’s stock market be upgraded, such as removing obstacles relating to foreign ownership ratios and certain regulations on the foreign exchange market, while creating more favorable conditions for securities investors.

Total policy credit in the first half of this year reached more than VND286 trillion ($12.25 billion), an 11.6 per cent increase year-on-year, according to Mr. Duong Quyet Thang, General Director of the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies. As of June 30, the bank had disbursed nearly VND9 trillion ($385.26 million) in a package of more than VND38 trillion ($1.63 billion) of policy credit to recover the economy.

SSI Research has forecast that PNJ may be excluded from the VN30-Index because its stock capitalization is insufficient, while VIB may take its place as it has the largest capitalization outside of the VN30.

In its annual market classification assessment in June, Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) classified Vietnam’s stock market as continuing to be a marginal market. VnDirect believes the stock market is unlikely to be on the watch list for reclassification as an emerging market in the June 2023 review. It may, however, be added to the watch list for reclassification from marginal to emerging market status in the review in June 2024. It may then secure emerging market status in June 2025.

The real estate stock price index had fallen 25 per cent since the beginning of the year as of mid-June, equaling the decline of the VN-Index. SSI Research therefore believes real estate stock prices have come down to an attractive level for long-term holding.

In a recent publication from Vietnam Report, many analysts participating in a survey said the “shadow” cast by the pandemic has receded and largely given way to a brighter picture being seen in the banking industry over the course of the second half of 2022. Respondents, however, also pointed to a series of “gray areas” that the banking industry must pay attention to.