Stockbroker VNDirect's market share on Vietnam's major bourse hits 19-quarter low

VNDirect Securities, one of the leading stockbrokers in Vietnam, unexpectedly saw its market share on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) in Q3/2024 shrink from 6.46% to 5.7%, the lowest level since Q4/2019.

VNDirect dropped to the sixth position among the top brokers on the HoSE, Vietnam's major bourse, in July-September from the fourth in Q2, according to the HoSE's Q3 ranking.

This decline in its market share came after VNDirect was hit by a ransomware attack on March 25, which paralyzed its trading system for a week. This incident hindered investors' trading plans and led to a crisis of trust, resulting in customer loss to rivals.

VPS Securities maintained its top position with a dominant market share of 17.63%, a slight decrease of 0.5 percentage points from Q2.

In the first half of this year, VPS's brokerage revenue reached over VND1.85 trillion ($74.46 million), a surge of 81% year-on-year.

It was followed by SSI Securities, with a market share of 8.84%. In the first six months of the year, SSI earned VND1,008 billion ($40.56 million) from brokerage services, up 70% year-on-year. Techcom Securities (TCBS) came in third with 7.09%.

Notably, VietCap Securities' market share surged to 6.78% from 5.32% in Q2, jumping to fourth place. This was VietCap's biggest market share since Q1/2021, although it remained well below its peak of over 10% in 2018-2019.

Ranking fifth, seventh, and eighth were Ho Chi Minh Securities (HSC), MBBank Securities (MBS), and Mirae Asset Securities (Vietnam), respectively.

FPT Securities (FPTS) made a comeback to the top 10 with a market share of 2.97%, ranking ninth, while KIS Vietnam Securities achieved a market share of 2.96%, a slight increase from 2.87% in Q2, coming in right behind FPTS.

The 10 biggest brokers controlled a combined 67.81% market share, according to exchange data.

Vietnam Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation (VSDC) reported that in September, the number of newly opened securities accounts reached 158,504, halving from August.

As a result, the total number of securities accounts opened by domestic and foreign investors at the end of September exceeded 8.86 million, equivalent to 8.9% of Vietnam's population.

In its recent report, SSI Securities said the Vietnamese stock market maintained a positive trend in the first three quarters of 2024, with high liquidity and the VN-Index, which tracks the performance of the HoSE, poised to surpass its previous peak. The major index closed at 1,287.94 points in September, up 0.32% from August.

Despite experiencing volatility in August and September, the Vietnamese stock market stayed positive in Q3. The VN-Index rose by 3.4% during the quarter, bolstered by a strong recovery in large-cap stocks, with the VN30 Index rising 5.8%.

However, market liquidity in Q3 declined, with the average trading value on the HoSE reaching VND18.5 trillion ($744.32 million) per session, down from VND25.2 trillion in Q2.

Foreign investors' net selling waned in Q3, with a value of VND14.2 trillion ($571.3 million), significantly lower than the VND41 trillion seen in Q2. The proportion of foreign trading activity in the market averaged 10.9% during the quarter, up from 8.9% in the first two quarters of the year.

The VN-Index closed Monday at 1,299.93 points, slightly down 0.05% from the previous trading session on Friday. The trading value on the HoSE dropped nearly 14% to VND11.85 trillion ($476.8 million).