HÀ NỘI — The Hà Nội Stock exchange (HNX) has improved its share, bond and derivatives markets considerably in 2018 and will continue to enhance the markets’ operation next year.

This year, HNX’s stock market saw increases in both scale and liquidity. As of December 15, HNX had approved the listing of seven firms with a registration value of more than VNĐ1 trillion (US$8.1 million).

Currently there are 374 firms listing on the northern exchange with market capitalisation of nearly VNĐ190 trillion. Average trading value reached VNĐ788 billion per session, up 28 per cent year-on-year.

On the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM), the number of listing firms and capitalisation value soared. As of December 12, there were 803 firms listing on the UPCoM with capitalisation value of VNĐ 830 trillion, up 16 per cent compared to the end of 2017. Average trading value reached VNĐ 374 billion per session, up 84 per cent against last year.

UPCoM was first launched by HNX on June 24, 2009, to narrow and limit the trading of companies’ shares on the free, unmanaged market and expand the government-managed market.

To help firms listing on the UPCoM improve the monitoring of information disclosure and enhance transparency, HNX has launched the assessment progamme on firms’ information disclosure and transparency. This year, the programme honoured 10 enterprises with best performance in information disclosure and transparency.

Thrive bond market

On the bond market, HNX has continuously developed infrastructure systems to meet new legal regulations such as upgrading programmes on bidding, transaction, information and websites.

The exchange is also perfecting its research on the organisation of corporate bond market and the plan of building a corporate bond portal.

As of December 12, HNX had held 255 bidding rounds, mobilising VNĐ165.8 trillion.

The primary government bond market is achieving positive results in the development of long-term investors.

This year, there have been social insurance funds buying government bonds in the form of bidding. Life insurance companies also increased their investment in bonds in the context of the development of the life insurance market.

The winning bid value of government bonds of the insurance sector in 2018 accounted for more than 61 per cent of the total market winning bid value, an increase of 48 per cent compared to 2017.

The bond market’s listing scale as of December 15 reached nearly VNĐ1.1 quadrillion, up 8.2 per cent from 2017, equivalent to 20 per cent of GDP.

The average trading value was VNĐ8.7 trillion per session, down 3.3 per cent compared to 2017, of which repurchase agreement transactions accounted for 53.8 per cent of the total market trading value.

Derivatives market

The derivatives market after more than one year of operation has also grown well. As of December 15, the average trading volume reached more than 76,000 contracts per session, up 6.9 times compared to the average of 2017.

Open interest (OI) – the total number of open or outstanding options and/or futures contracts – continued to maintain the uptrend, reaching 19,500 contracts as of December15, about 2.35 times higher than the first session of the year. The number of derivative trading accounts currently stands at 56,000.

HNX leaders said the agency has developed a draft form of five-year government bond futures contract published on the HNX website, waiting for approval of the competent authorities for official implementation.

Speaking at the conference to sum up HNX performance in 2018 held last week in Hà Nội, State Securities Commission (SSC) chairman Trần Văn Dũng said the 2019 key mission of the securities sector was the formation and enforcement of the revised Law on Securities.

Dũng asked the HNX to keep researching and perfecting new products to submit to the SSC for approval for implementation, boosting the enterprise equitisition process and develop the corporate bond market. — VNS