Foreign investors net buyers for ninth consecutive month

It is the ninth consecutive month that this group of investors have been net buyers.

In May, foreign investors made net purchases of VND4 trillion ($171 million) worth of shares in all three exchanges: Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE), Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX); and the Unlisted Public Companies Market (UPCoM).

Over the last nine months, foreigners bought shares worth a cumulative VND21 trillion ($896 million) on HoSE, Vietnam’s main market which holds 90 percent of market cap across all exchanges.

M&A transactions were the main driver behind net buys in the past nine months, while transactions under the form of order matching experience net sells.

In May, foreigners recorded a net buy of VND5.3 trillion ($226 million) worth of shares in agreed share transfers, while selling a net total of VND1.6 trillion ($68 million) on the stock exchange via order matching.

The stocks most net bought by foreign investors were VIC shares of Vietnam’s biggest private conglomerate Vingroup. Singaporean SK group purchased a 6.15 percent stake in Vingroup for close to $1 billion in late May.

In the last nine months, Vietjet’s VJC was the most sold stock, with a recorded net sell of VND574 billion ($24.48 million). More than VND769 billion ($32.8 million) came through put-through transactions.

Other major stocks, like VHM of Vietnam’s biggest dairy company Vinamilk; VHM of Vinhomes, Vingroup’s real estate arm; and HPG of leading steelmaker Hoa Phat Group also saw strong selling pressure from foreign investors in the period.

Ending the last trading session in May, Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index closed at 959.88 points, down more than 2 percent from the previous month. Hanoi’s HNX-Index also fell nearly 3 percent to 104.35 points compared to the last session in April.