Vietnam aims to nearly double size of securities market in 2025

The Vietnamese government has set a target of raising its securities market capitalization to 100% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2025, nearly doubling its size as of end-2023.

The market size is expected to swell to 120% of GDP in 2030, according to a government strategy for stock market development released late in December.

The combined value of shares traded on Vietnam's three stock exchanges – Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), Hanoi Stock Exchange, and Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) – was VND5,746.3 trillion ($236.5 billion) as of end-2023, equivalent to 56.22% of 2023 GDP. The HoSE alone was capitalized at VND4,401.5 trillion ($181 billion).

According to the newly-released strategy, outstanding bonds are set to reach at least 47% of GDP, of which corporate bonds would account for 20% or more, in 2025. The respective goals for 2030 are 58% and 25% of GDP.

According to BIDV Securities, outstanding bonds were valued at VND2,841,9 trillion ($117 billion) at the end of December, accounting for just 27.8% of GDP. The amount included VND1,798.9 trillion ($74 billion) worth of g-bonds, or 17.6% of GDP.

The government also aims to have nine million securities accounts in 2025 and 11 million in 2030, with priority given to developing institutional, professional, and foreign traders.

There were 7.25 million valid securities accounts as of end-November 2023, including 7.19 million domestic individuals and 16,045 domestic institutions. The tally included 45,196 foreign accounts, including 4,534 institutional players.

The weight of government bonds held by non-banking investors is targeted to increase to 55% in 2025 and 60% in 2030.

The strategy sets the goal of having Vietnam’s stock market status upgraded to "frontier" in 2025 from "emerging" as now by international agencies.

The VN-Index, which tracks the HoSE, ended 2023 at 1,129.93 points, up 12.2% year-on-year.