Foreign investors hold over $12.6 bln worth of Vietnamese securities

Foreign investors held over VND323.53 trillion ($12.65 billion) worth of securities at the end of 2024, accounting for 7.35% of the total registered securities value at the Vietnam Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation (VSDC), according to its general director Ta Thanh Binh.

Securities registered at VSDC comprise stocks listed/registered for trading, fund certificates, covered warrants, government debt instruments, government-guaranteed bonds, municipal bonds, corporate bonds which are listed on the stock exchanges, shares of public companies, and securities which must be registered at VSDC per laws.

In the “Financial Street” talk show on Monday, Binh stated that the key indicators of Vietnam’s stock market are still showing relatively positive growth. At the end of 2024, Vietnam’s stock market had over 9.3 million investor accounts, a 27.5% increase year-on-year. In just over a month in early 2025, more than 110,000 new investor accounts were opened, showing relatively sustainable growth.

However, the VSDC leader believed that individual investors will still make up a vast majority (over 99%) of the total, while the number of institutional investors remains relatively low compared to the expectations of regulatory authorities.

According to current data, there are over 41,000 foreign investors on the Vietnamese stock market, or only 0.57% of the total number, but they hold 7.35% of the total registered securities at VSDC, she noted.

In 2024, foreign investors were strong net sellers to the tune of over VND90 trillion ($3.53 billion). However, the number of securities held by foreign investors, as well as the value of their securities portfolios, still increased.

As of December 31, 2024, foreign investors had held more than 28.2 billion securities worth VND323.53 trillion ($12.65 billion), accounting for 7.35% of the total registered securities at VSDC. The figures represented respective increases of 1.1 billion securities (or 4.17%) and VND 10.3 trillion or $403.4 million (3.29%) compared to the end of 2023.

Notably, last year, the finance ministry issued Circular 68, which allows foreign investors to place securities orders without having funds at the time of the order, known as the non pre-funding solution (NPS).

After three months of implementation, VSDC surveyed several large securities companies with many foreign investors opening accounts, and the results were optimistic. More than 1,200 institutional foreign investors have registered to apply this new mechanism at securities companies, and their transaction value has accounted for 11.16% of the total of foreign investors.

Bright prospects for market status upgrade

Evaluating the stock market in 2025, Binh predicted that it would be a year with many positive highlights. One of the most important is the recovery of the economy, driven by decisive actions from the government in managing macroeconomic policies.

Especially in 2025, the regulatory authorities are drastically directing the soon operation of the new trading system KRX for the stock market.

She said she believed that with the operation of the KRX system, securities companies and market participants will have more opportunities to introduce new products on the stock market, which will strongly support the growth of market liquidity compared to 2024.

Regarding the market status upgrade from “frontier” to “emerging”, VSDC’s leader stated that basically the Vietnamese stock market has met the ranking criteria required by FTSE Russell. However, time is needed for the credit rating agency to assess the feasibility of applying those policies to the Vietnamese market and how they will be received by foreign investors and organizations.

As the market operator, VSDC has closely coordinated with regulatory agencies and major foreign investors, especially FTSE Russell. "So far, the criteria for upgrading the Vietnamese stock market from a frontier to an emerging according to FTSE standards have largely been met, signaling a positive prospect of the upgrade in 2025."

"We expect that FTSE will provide an objective and positive assessment in March regarding the solutions that Vietnam has taken, so that in the September 2025 review, Vietnam’s stock market can be upgraded as expected by investors," Binh added.