Bank stocks help PYN Elite beat VN-Index in Sept

Finland-based PYN Elite Fund recorded returns of 3.37% in September, outperforming a mere 0.3% increase of the benchmark VN-Index of the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, thanks to the rallies of its bank portfolio.

Of its portfolio, TPBank, Sacombank, and VietinBank were the top three movers, rising 15.3%, 9.2%, and 5.4% last month, respectively, the fund said in a monthly review.

In an investor letter late last month, PYN said its 50% allocation to Vietnamese banks represents a significant strategic investment as local banks tend to achieve a sector-specific and quite substantial rally in cycles of a few years.

The fund said that when comparing Vietnam’s 10 largest banks with the 10 largest tech companies in the U.S., the result is “astonishing”: for the period 2019-2025, the earnings growth of Vietnamese banks is actually slightly better than that of U.S. tech companies.

As of end-September, five banks – Sacombank, MBBank, TPBank, VietinBank, and HDBank – were among the top 10 holdings of the fund’s portfolio.

Meanwhile, state-controlled airport developer ACV, fuel retailer Petrolimex, and Military Insurance Company (MIG) were the worst performers last month.

Since the start of this year, PYN Elite has booked returns of 20.61%, higher than a 13%-plus increase of the VN-Index.

It had EUR830.7 million ($911.57) worth of assets under management as of September 30.

The stock market’s prefunding requirement for foreign institutional investors has been removed. This is an important criterion for FTSE to consider upgrading Vietnam to the “Emerging Market” status, the fund commented.