Vietnam recorded 395,290 new securities accounts in 2023 despite a massive number of inactive accounts being removed during the year.
There were nearly 7.25 million accounts registered under Vietnamese names, including 7.23 million individuals, or 99.77% of domestic traders, data from the Vietnam Securities Depository showed.
During the year, 392,617 domestic accounts were opened, including 1,508 institutions.
Meanwhile, the number of foreign accounts increased by 2,673 last year, including 223 institutional players.
In December, 39,600 new accounts were opened, marking the first increase after two months of decline as brokerage houses deleted inactive accounts at the request of the government.
The VN-Index, which tracks the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, rose 3.27% last month, leading to a full-year increase of 12.2%.
Under a newly-released strategy for stock market development, the government aims to have nine million securities accounts in 2025 and 11 million in 2030, with priority given to developing institutional, professional, and foreign traders.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in mid-December asked the ministries of Finance and Public Security to review investor data before cleaning up at securities companies to improve stock market safety.