With only 2 initial listed stock codes, 6 member securities companies, 4,200 matched shares and the first session's trading value of only 70.4 million VND, this event opened a new chapter in the country's economic and financial development history.
Over the 25-year journey, HoSE has grown along with the increasingly strong changes of the Vietnamese stock market and has continuously built valuable foundations, bringing sustainable trust to the securities industry in particular and the Vietnamese economy in general. Let's take a look back at this impressive journey together.
Journey of value creation
Accompanying securities companies to expand scale and improve service quality
From the initial number of member securities companies participating in the market, there were only 6 companies including Bao Viet Securities Joint Stock Company, Vietnam Development and Investment Bank Securities Company Limited, Saigon Securities Joint Stock Company, De Nhat Securities Joint Stock Company, Thang Long Securities Joint Stock Company and ACB Securities Company Limited, after a period of strong development and restructuring of securities companies, by May 31, 2025, the total number of member securities companies connecting to HOSE for transactions was 78, an increase of 72 companies, equivalent to an increase of 13 times compared to the beginning.
The total number of employees working at securities companies as of May 2025 is nearly 16,000, of which more than 7,000 employees have securities practice certificates (accounting for 44.1% of the total number of employees of securities companies) and this number is increasing.
The financial capacity of securities companies has been continuously improved. From a charter capital of only a few billion VND or a few tens of billion VND per company, many securities companies now have a charter capital of over a thousand billion VND.
According to data in the 2024 Audited Financial Report of member securities companies connecting transactions to HoSE, there are 45 securities companies with charter capital of VND 1,000 billion or more, accounting for 57.7% of the total number of securities companies.
In particular, there are securities companies with charter capital greater than 15 trillion VND such as SSI Securities Corporation, Techcom Securities Corporation or VNDirect Securities Corporation with charter capital of 19,638 billion VND, 19,613 billion VND and 15,222 billion VND respectively.
This shows that securities companies have grown and developed significantly on HoSE and reached the regional level. Most securities companies operate effectively and have large profits (61/78 securities companies have accumulated profits by 2024 with a total accumulated profit after tax of VND 55,723 billion).
The operations of securities companies have gradually become more diverse, from simple operations such as brokerage and proprietary trading, with expanded services and improved quality, aiming to serve customers and increasingly focusing on strengthening corporate governance, attracting more experience and foreign investment capital.
During that development process, securities companies have invested heavily in modern technology infrastructure, built information channels and applications to support investors in analyzing, monitoring, executing transactions and managing transactions conveniently and quickly, attracting many investors to participate in the stock market.
The number of investor trading accounts opened at securities companies has increased steadily over the years. From the initial number of 2,997 accounts at the end of 2000, by May 2025, the total number of investor trading accounts opened at member securities companies connected to HoSE was 10,070,952 accounts, an increase of 3,360 times compared to 2000.
Member securities companies have many opportunities to participate in auction consulting, equitization and securities listing consulting activities on HoSE. Many securities companies have actively registered to perform market making activities for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as well as actively issuing and listing covered warrants (CWs), researching and developing new products with HoSE, thereby bringing many values to the securities companies themselves and to the stock market.
In addition, securities companies are also involved in drafting legal documents as well as coordinating the dissemination and training of securities knowledge for investors. With diverse activities, securities companies are increasingly professional and have become an important contributor to the development of the securities market at HoSE.
Driving force for the growth of listed companies and capital markets
For listed enterprises on HoSE, initially only two enterprises listed and traded their shares (REE and SAM). By the end of April 2025, there were 391 stock codes, 21 fund certificate codes (including 17 ETF fund certificate codes) and 201 covered warrant codes, corresponding to 178.4 billion securities listed and traded on HoSE.
Enterprises listed on HoSE are diverse in terms of industry and scale, focusing on large, leading enterprises with stable business operations.
As of the end of April 2025, the four sectors with the highest proportions are Finance, Real Estate, Essential Consumer Goods and Industry, accounting for more than 75% of the total market capitalization, of which the Finance sector accounts for the largest proportion with nearly VND 2.28 million billion (accounting for 44.5% of the total capitalization); There are 18 large banks listed on HoSE with a capitalization value of VND 2.04 million billion (accounting for 40% of the total capitalization value); there are more than 40 enterprises listed on HoSE with a capitalization value of more than 1 billion USD.
On HoSE, nearly 50% of listed enterprises are equitized state-owned enterprises. Notably, 45/100 largest private enterprises in Vietnam in 2024 (according to VNR statistics) and 24/30 largest private enterprises contributing to the budget in Vietnam in 2024 (according to statistics of the Tax Department) are currently listed on HoSE.
Listing on HoSE shows that this is not only a milestone affirming the position and brand of listed enterprises but also opening the door to access medium and long-term capital flows, both domestic and foreign. Therefore, HoSE has become the first choice of listed enterprises in the strategy of effective capital mobilization and expansion of production and business activities. The charter capital of many companies has grown significantly compared to the time of listing, typically enterprises such as Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade (74 times); Hoa Phat Group Joint Stock Company (48 times), Vingroup Corporation - Joint Stock Company (47 times), Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (44 times); Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Joint Stock Company (31 times); FPT Joint Stock Company (24 times); Gemadept Joint Stock Company (24 times); Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (13.1 times). By the end of 2024, the average total charter capital of listed enterprises will reach more than VND 4.2 trillion, an increase of more than 3 times compared to 2015.
Within 25 years, the total value of capital mobilized through additional stock issuance has exceeded 520 trillion VND, with more than 1,000 issuances with cash collection, the financial sector alone has brought in more than 230 trillion VND.
State-owned enterprises often choose to equitize through auctions, initial public offerings, or private placements to increase capital on HoSE. More than 50% of listed enterprises are equitized state-owned enterprises, which is a clear demonstration of effective equitization and listing on HoSE, contributing to promoting the process of state capital divestment and information transparency according to market mechanisms.
From 2005 to present, there have been 584 share auctions, selling more than 4,800 million shares and more than 130 million share purchase rights, thereby collecting more than 240 trillion VND for owners on HoSE; of which, there were 352 initial public offerings of shares for equitized state-owned enterprises, collecting more than 74.8 trillion VND for the state. Some typical share auctions and state capital divestments such as: SAB (more than 115 trillion VND), VCB (over 10 trillion VND), VNM (over 9.5 trillion VND) not only demonstrated financial efficiency but also marked a turning point in improving governance capacity and information transparency.
The quality of listed companies is increasingly improving. Data from 2015-2024 shows that the revenue and profit of listed companies tend to improve significantly over time. The rate of companies reporting profits remains stable, reflecting the efficiency of capital use after listing as well as positive changes in governance and development strategy.
Becoming a listed company on HoSE not only opens up growth opportunities, but also comes with stricter requirements on transparency and governance. From information disclosure, internal management to shareholder responsibility, businesses are forced to upgrade comprehensively to meet increasingly high monitoring standards from management agencies.
Listed enterprises also receive active guidance and support in fully and effectively disclosing information from HoSE. The implementation of the electronic document management (ECM) system on HoSE has helped eliminate paperwork, save time and improve the efficiency of managing disclosure records. Training programs, legal seminars and specialized consulting are regularly organized to support enterprises in understanding regulations and flexibly handling practical situations. Enterprises are encouraged to enhance Investor Relations (IR) activities, improving their ability to connect with the investing public. A notable step forward from 2025 is that 100% of enterprises on HoSE have periodically disclosed information in English. This is an important foundation to increase foreign investors' access and enhance market position.
Contribute to strongly increasing the scale and operational efficiency of the investment fund industry.
The investment fund industry in Vietnam has made significant progress, from its infancy to its current strong growth with 43 fund management companies operating, managing 123 securities investment funds with a total asset value of over VND 750 trillion, more than 7 times higher than in 2014. Over the past 10 years, the fund industry has maintained a strong growth rate, averaging about 20% per year, contributing to diversifying investment channels in the stock market and increasing capital mobilization for the economy. Of which, there are 03 closed-end funds, 01 real estate fund and importantly, 17 exchange-traded funds (ETFs) listed and traded effectively on HoSE.
Over the past decade since the first ETF product was listed in 2014, capital flows through ETFs have increasingly affirmed their role in connecting domestic and foreign investors with representative stock groups on HoSE. ETFs simulate important index sets developed by HoSE such as VN30, VN100, VN Midcap, VN Diamond, VNFIN Select, VNFIN Lead, VNX50, with a total listed volume of over 1 billion fund certificates, with a total net asset value (NAV) of nearly VND25 trillion, 4 times higher than at the end of 2019.
With a passive and transparent management mechanism, ETF products on HoSE not only provide investors with a tool that closely simulates the performance of leading indices on the market but also act as an effective capital attraction channel, increasing liquidity for the market.
From 2014 to the end of May 2025, the market recorded 2,185 swaps that increased more than 3.52 billion ETF certificates and 1,679 swaps that decreased 2.64 billion ETF certificates.
In 2022 alone, the primary market recorded 688 swap transactions, the highest ever, corresponding to the excitement of the secondary market when the trading volume and value of ETFs on HoSE reached 1.82 billion fund certificates and VND 39,528 billion, respectively.
This growth is reflected in the number of funds and asset size, and reflects the increase in liquidity in both the primary and secondary markets, gradually positioning ETFs as a popular and attractive investment tool for individual and institutional investors, contributing to operational efficiency and promoting the growth of the investment fund industry in the stock market. However, the total assets under management at fund management companies only account for nearly 6.5% of GDP in 2024, significantly lower than other countries in the region (such as Thailand 21%, Malaysia 52%), with much room to expand and develop along with the Vietnamese stock market.
Increase value, enhance position with Vietnam stock market
Looking back on the 25-year journey of formation and development, a pioneering centralized stock market established at HoSE has become the stock market with the largest capitalization value in the country (capitalization value as of May 30, 2025 is 218 billion USD), meeting the expectations of the Government and investors.
Market liquidity has increased dramatically, from an average daily trading volume of only 55,497 securities in 2000, corresponding to an average daily trading value of 1.4 billion VND, to 846 million securities and 18,936 billion VND respectively.
This is a huge number, showing the remarkable growth of the stock market at HoSE. Although it was born after the stock markets of countries in the Southeast Asian region such as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, the growth in capitalization and liquidity at HoSE is gradually narrowing the gap and becoming one of the most vibrant markets in the region (in 2024, liquidity on HoSE is among the highest, ranking fourth in Southeast Asia after Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia).
With Vietnam likely to be upgraded to emerging market status this year, it promises to expand capital mobilization channels and attract more foreign investment flows, contributing to boosting market capitalization and liquidity.
The VN-Index is a measure of stock price growth in the market. From 100 points on July 28, 2000, it has increased to 1,332.60 points on May 30, 2025 - VN-Index has had an impressive growth journey and stands out compared to many other stock indices in the Southeast Asian region and even in the world, showing that the stock market at HoSE has become an increasingly attractive investment destination.
Entering the “New Era”, “The Era of the Vietnamese people’s rise” in the context of HoSE constantly improving and developing strongly with the restructuring of trading floors, the number of listed securities is increasing and diversifying, the quality is improved, intermediary organizations actively support, the information technology infrastructure is innovated and modernized, many products and transaction utilities are deployed, there is a strict monitoring mechanism to ensure transparency and efficiency… and with the youthfulness of 25 years old and the achievements in recent years, the stock market at HoSE is expected to be an investment place that brings a lot of value to domestic and foreign investors in the past time and in the future.
The connection of the stock market at HoSE with the stock markets of other countries through HoSE establishing and maintaining many strategic cooperative relationships such as Founding Member of the ASEAN Linkage Initiative, official member of the World Federation of Stock Exchanges (WFE, transferred to VNX by August 2023) Asia-Pacific Stock Exchange (AOSEF), partner of the Sustainable Stock Exchange Initiative (SSE), memorandums of understanding (MOU) with many major stock exchanges in the world such as New York, London, Korea, Singapore... At the same time, it is an important foundation for the formation and development of the International Financial Center in Ho Chi Minh City, putting the stock market at HoSE on the global financial map, enhancing integration capacity as proof of value assurance for market participants.
Journey of Faith
The word "stock" is still a vague concept and there are many worries and doubts about the establishment of the stock market. The birth of the Vietnamese stock market with the first trading floor located at HoSE has demonstrated the great determination and trust of the Party and State in the success of the stock market.
Up to now, the great values that the stock market at HoSE has brought to the Vietnamese economy and market participants have shown that this historic decision was completely correct.
Although there have been times when the stock market has shown hot growth in the context of everyone rushing to invest in stocks or there have been times when the market has fallen sharply, strongly affected by the international market such as trade wars, capital flows, serious Covid-19 epidemic situation, order congestion incidents in the stock market... However, under the strong direction of the Government, coordination with ministries, relevant agencies, timely and appropriate solutions of management agencies, efforts of enterprises, consensus of investors... those difficulties and challenges have been resolved and handled promptly so that the stock market continues to develop safely, openly, transparently and more and more sustainably. Through ups and downs, the stock market has matured, combined with the increase, improvement and expansion of activities of securities companies, listed enterprises and investors, showing that a solid belief has been built and deepened.
To maintain and keep that trust, HoSE determined that it needs to make more efforts in organizing, operating and managing market operations. Accordingly, many activities have been implemented by HoSE during the past 25 years:
Organize the operation of a stable, safe and smooth stock trading market
With the main function of organizing the stock trading market, HoSE always puts the goal of operating a stable, safe and smooth stock trading market first. In fact, through the development process of the stock market, from the early stages of trading several hundred million VND per session, market liquidity has gradually increased, and now it is among the top liquidity in the ASEAN region. Or in challenging times such as during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the market was under pressure from global economic fluctuations, HoSE always tries to ensure the system operates smoothly, effectively handle unusual situations and maintain investor confidence.
HoSE identifies technology infrastructure as the core focus for market operations, focusing on modernizing the infrastructure with 3 main components: Exchange Tower building (2014), Backup Data Center at Quang Trung Software Park (2016) and on May 5, 2025, after the project implementation period, the new information technology system for the stock market was approved by the competent authority and officially put into operation, creating a modern, integrated and synchronous technology infrastructure, meeting the development needs of the market.
With many new integrated features, this is a step forward for the Vietnamese stock market, better meeting the development needs and better serving businesses and investors, an opportunity to deploy new products, moving closer to the goal of upgrading the market.
Creating a transparent, fair and efficient market
Transparency and fairness have always been the core principles for building market trust, and that is also the top goal in the operation of HoSE. The organization of close monitoring of daily transactions to detect, prevent and promptly handle market manipulation and manipulation has contributed to increasing compliance with the law, strengthening the trust of investors and intermediary organizations.
The inspection and supervision of information disclosure by listed companies are also strictly implemented, in conjunction with the review of financial statements, corporate governance reports, and the review of maintaining listing conditions to handle violations, ensuring that investors have access to complete, timely and transparent information. Statistics over the past 10 years show that the number of enterprises violating information disclosure has decreased by nearly 80%; from 2022 to present, 13 enterprises have been delisted due to serious violations of information disclosure, a figure that shows that the level of compliance is clearly improving, contributing to improving the quality of goods listed on HoSE.
Along with that, as Vietnam is gradually moving towards the goal of upgrading the market from frontier to emerging, HoSE's efforts in standardizing operations, modernizing trading infrastructure, urging listed companies to disclose information in English, and improving accessibility for foreign investors are core factors that help strengthen the trust of the international community.
Research, develop and diversify products for the market
Developing new products is always a long-term orientation that HoSE aims for in order to create a diversified stock market in terms of products, approaching the general development trend of international stock markets. HoSE has pioneered in researching and implementing many new stock products and operations from simple to complex to suit the market development conditions and increasingly diverse needs of investors.
Commodities on HoSE are not only stocks, but have expanded to advanced structured products, following the passive investment trend that is spreading rapidly globally, such as investment fund certificates, exchange-traded fund certificates (ETFs), covered warrants (CWs), expanding the choices for investors, increasing transaction value and increasing the attractiveness of the market.
At the same time, the system of stock indices is also continuously developed to provide the market with multi-dimensional information, effectively supporting investment decisions, and at the same time serving as the basis for developing new products such as derivatives, ETFs, CWs and other structured products, which are of interest to many domestic and foreign investors. In particular, VN-Index has become a "compass" to measure the price movements of stocks of enterprises listed on HoSE, gradually growing, laying the foundation for the development of HoSE's stock index set in the future.
To date, HoSE's index system has built a diverse and comprehensive ecosystem from capitalization-based indexes (VN30, VN100, VNMidcap, VNSmallcap), to industry indexes (VNFIN, VNIND, VNREAL, VNCONS, ...), investment indexes/theme indexes (VNDIAMOND, VNFINLEAD, VNFINSELECT, VNSI) and general indexes (VNX50, VNXAllshare). The indexes have become the "compass" for market orientation and the development platform for many financial products, contributing to the diversification of investment tools and risk management.
In addition to developing new products, the mechanisms and technical solutions deployed such as switching from periodic order matching to continuous order matching, expanding trading range, online trading, extending trading time, dividing the steps, adding new types of orders (market orders, ATO orders, ATC orders, etc.), odd-lot trading, operating technical solutions to handle overloaded trading systems, etc. have contributed to a strong increase in transaction value, making the Vietnamese stock market one of the markets with the highest liquidity in the ASEAN region.
Building the foundation for a sustainable market development
By coordinating the organization of the Annual Report Contest for listed companies since 2008, HoSE has contributed to establishing standards for corporate governance, aiming at sustainable development. After many years of accompanying the Vietnamese stock market and the listed company community, the Annual Report Contest has been upgraded to the Listed Company Contest (VLCA), in-depth assessment of corporate governance, sustainable development, aiming at responsible operation and investment, contributing to creating fundamental values for businesses and improving the quality of goods on the market. Many businesses have included the role of corporate governance and sustainable development in their long-term vision and strategy, thereby enhancing corporate value and increasing investor confidence.
In the context of integration, the standards applied to listed businesses on HOSE have gradually approached the global practice, such as compliance with the principles of international financial statements (IFRS), GCIS (GLOBAL Industry Classification Standard), deploying information to publish information in English, setting the standards of corporate governance, towards developing steadily ... Also proactively expand cooperation with many international transactions, professional organizations, enhance diplomatic activities - all to affirm the commitment of transparency, professionalism and sustainable development for the market.
In addition, the launch of the sustainable development index (VNSI) in 2017 marked the interest in promoting listed businesses on HOSE towards business activities more social and sustainable. This index is built according to the Gri (Global Reporting Initiative) standard, a sustainable development report of global recognized sustainable. The compliance with the Gri standard helps VNSI comprehensively evaluate environmental, social and corporate governance, creating a solid basis for sustainable investment products in Vietnam.
Looking back on the 25 -year journey of establishment and development, the stock market in HOSE is not only an attractive investment place that brings many values, but also a symbol of consistency and continuous efforts in maintaining trust. From the toddler steps, the stock market in HOSE has risen to become one of the key markets in the region, making an important contribution to the country's economic development. The journey ahead promises many challenges but also full of opportunities, and HOSE, with a solid foundation that has been built, will continue to strive to be the locomotive, creating a better, effective and more reliable stock market in the future.
Source: https://nhandan.vn/hose-va-hanh-trinh-25-nam-nang-gia-tri-vung-niem-tin-post896347.html
Comment (0)