Vietnam tech giant FPT’s stock faces net selling by most funds in Feb

FPT Corporation's ticker FPT experienced net selling by 22 funds in February, the largest number among all stocks, as its price showed signs of reaching its peak since late January and faced continued selling pressure, according to financial data firm FiinGroup.

In its latest report on investment fund activity for February 2025, FiinGroup attributed this trend to funds adjusting their portfolios to preserve performance.

Among the top 10 stocks with the highest net selling by funds, TPB of TPBank stood out as the leader, with Finland's Pyn Elite Fund reducing its stake from 9.6% in January to 8.7% in February.

VPB of VPBank, VHM of real estate giant Vinhomes, and VIC of Vietnam’s largest private conglomerate Vingroup continued to be sold by funds for the second consecutive month, though the volume decreased compared to January.

The report also highlighted the top 10 stocks with the highest net buying by funds (based on trading volume), six of which were from the financial sector.

LPB of LPBank topped the list after being added to the VN30 basket, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest market caps, and had its weighting increased in the VNFIN Lead index during the Q1/2025 rebalancing. The main buyers were two passive funds: the DCVFMVN30 and KIM GROWTH VN30 ETFs.

SHB of Saigon-Hanoi Bank ranked second, with net buying mainly from exchange traded funds (ETFs) such as Fubon FTSE Vietnam and VanEck Vietnam. TCB of Techcombank saw the largest number of funds net buying (23), primarily open-ended funds managed by Dragon Capital and VinaCapital.

Other financial stocks among the top 10 most-net-bought include VCI of Viet Capital Securities (5.9 million shares), VIB of Vietnam International Bank (3.5 million shares), OCB of Oriental Commercial Bank (3.5 million shares), and MBB of MBBank (2.7 million shares).

The remaining three in the top 10 were HVN of national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines (3.1 million shares), MWG of retailer Mobile World (2.4 million shares), and GMD of logistics heavyweight GMD Group (2.1 million shares).

Better returns than savings interest rates

According to FiinGroup, in February 2025, equity and balanced funds recorded returns of 1.19% and 1.32%, respectively, higher than bond funds (0.45%). This trend contrasts with January, when bond funds were the only group maintaining a positive return.

Notably, the performance of all three fund groups in February exceeded the average savings interest rate, indicating the funds' ability to optimize profits as the market improved.

Over the last six months, bond funds have continued to outperform equity and balanced funds, reflecting the stability of fixed-income investment strategies during a sideways stock market.

Equity funds rebounded strongly in February, with the number of funds showing positive returns dominating (57/68 funds), and the average return reaching 1.2% (after a 0.5% decline in January). However, the performance of equity funds in the first two months of 2025 remained relatively low, with an average of 0.9%, due to the weak performance in January.

For open-end funds, those with smaller NAVs (net asset value) performed better than larger NAV funds. Among them, the VinaCapital Dynamic Dividend Equity Fund (VDEF) – with a total NAV of VND197 billion ($7.68 million) – led with an outstanding performance of 5% in February, and a cumulative two-month return of 4.2%.

The fund's portfolio includes banking stocks such as ACB of Asia Commercial Bank, MBB of MBBank, CTG of VietinBank, and tickers in the industrial sector like PC1 of PC1 Group and SZC of Sonadezi Chau Duc Shareholding Company.

For closed-end funds, the three funds managed by Thien Viet Securities led in growth in February, with returns ranging from 5.8% to 6.4%. The portfolios of these funds, mostly featuring DXG of Dat Xanh Group, DXS of Dat Xanh Real Estate Services JSC, HSG of Hoa Sen Group, and VCI of Viet Capital Securities, showed positive returns. However, their asset size was relatively small (around VND200 billion or $7.8 million per fund).

Meanwhile, the largest foreign fund in the Vietnamese stock market, VEIL, achieved a modest return of 1.3%, which is relatively lower compared to the overall market performance, and even below the benchmark VN-Index’s gain of 3.2%, as half of its portfolio consists of banking stocks, which typically have poorer performance than other tickers in the real estate and securities sectors.

In February, bond funds had an average performance of 0.45%, almost unchanged from January (0.44%). TCBF and Lighthouse Capital Bond Fund led with a performance of 0.9%. In contrast, the Mirae Asset Vietnam Flexible Fixed-Income Fund and Bao Viet Bond Fund reported less favorable performances, falling below the average savings interest rate for a 1-year term.

Notably, TCBF slightly increased its holdings in corporate bonds (from 51.5% in January to 53.8% in February), with top holdings in bonds of conglomerate Vingroup (VIC), real estate developers Vinhomes (VHM), and Novaland (NVL). The Lighthouse Capital Bond Fund’s portfolio primarily consists of corporate bonds from Agribank and agricultural firm BAF Vietnam (BAF).

Most bond investment funds maintained steady growth each month, and in the first two months of 2025, 17 out of 23 funds achieved returns higher than the average savings interest rate.

On the other hand, VCBF Fixed Income Fund (VCBF-FIF) recorded a return of only 0.4%, lower than January’s figure of 0.7%. The portfolio of this fund includes corporate bonds from Vinhomes, and retail giant Masan and its subsidiary MEATLife. Additionally, the MB Flexible Cash Flow Bond Fund (MBAM) saw a sharp decline in performance, from 0.7% in January to 0.3% in February.

Balanced funds performed significantly better in February compared to the previous month, with returns ranging from 0.7% to 1.8%. Notably, high returns (above 1.3%) were seen in smaller NAV funds, such as the Eastspring Investments Vietnam Dynamic Fund (1.8%) and the PVcom Balanced Investment Fund (PBIF) (1.7%), thanks to a high proportion of equity investments in their portfolios.