Six securities firms fined $1.5 mln in 2023

The Ministry of Finance fined six securities companies VND37.2 billion ($1.53 million) for violating regulations in 2023, said Deputy Minister Nguyen Duc Chi on Friday.

The ministry also put one company under control and two others on the warning list, he said at a regular cabinet press conference in Hanoi.

Last year, the trading value on Vietnam's three bourses, namely the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) and the Unlisted Public Companies Market (UPCoM), reached VND17.5 trillion ($717.8 million) per session, with a capitalization of VND6,000 trillion ($246.1 billion), accounting for nearly 60% of the country’s GDP.

In 2023, the country had about 355,000 new securities accounts, bringing the total number to 7 million.

The Vietnamese government has set a target of raising its stock market capitalization to 100% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2025, nearly doubling its size as of end-2023, according to a government strategy for stock market development released in late December. The market size is expected to swell to 120% of GDP in 2030.

Chi said his ministry is consulting with the government, ministries and people to amend a number of decrees on the stock market and sanctions for administrative violations in the market.

In the coming time, the ministry will restructure the market and eliminate weak securities and financial fund management companies, he added.

The VN-Index, which tracks the HoSE, ended 2023 at 1,129.93 points, up 12.2% year-on-year. Closing the Friday session, the benchmark index stood at 1,154.68 points, up 0.34% from the previous day, marking a six-session consecutive gaining streak.