More goods for the stock market: Lots of room for divestment, floor transfer, issuance...

In addition to the prospect of technology stocks associated with the development of startups and semiconductors, the supply of stocks comes from promoting state capital divestment, listing large private corporations and opening mechanisms for FDI enterprises to list.

The stock market is still waiting for diverse and quality goods in the coming time - Photo: Q. DINH

According to experts, these are the fastest ways to increase the supply of quality stocks to the market.

Waiting for new wave of goods

Mr. Pham Luu Hung, chief economist of SSI Securities, said the increase in goods on the stock market does not only come from equitization or IPO, but also from many other additional channels.

One of the important sources is to move the floor from UPCoM to HoSE or HNX, because foreign investment funds often find it difficult to disburse into UPCoM, while officially listed enterprises will become attractive destinations for international capital flows. In addition, additional issuances of listed enterprises also contribute significantly to increasing the supply of quality stocks.

The current favorable market context is opening up opportunities for many IPOs, equitizations and capital increases in the coming time.

"They said frankly that in ASEAN, there is currently no story as attractive as Vietnam. Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines are all facing their own problems, but only Vietnam stands out with its strong growth story," Mr. Hung shared after recent meetings with international investors.

According to him, this is a golden time for listed enterprises, the private sector and FDI companies in Vietnam to take advantage of the wave of foreign capital interest, promote equitization plans, listing or issuing capital increases. If this trend is promoted, the Vietnamese stock market can welcome a new wave of goods, more diverse and stronger than previous periods.

Experts also believe that an important source of goods that can supplement the stock market is divestment. In fact, many large corporations and groups have been listed but the state ownership ratio is still maintained at a very high level, causing the amount of free float to be limited. This directly affects liquidity and attractiveness to investors.

Vice Chairman of the State Securities Commission Bui Hoang Hai acknowledged that many large enterprises, especially in many banks, despite being listed, still have a very high state ownership ratio. Although enterprises play an important role, it is not necessary to own up to 80 - 90%, according to Mr. Hai.

"The 65% ownership ratio is enough for the State to maintain control, but holding too large a ratio makes the number of shares circulating on the market low, making the depth of those shares not high, reducing liquidity," Mr. Hai analyzed.

Especially for foreign investors, the attractiveness of stocks lies not only in the opportunity to buy but also in the ability to divest. When liquidity is low, they find it difficult to sell on a large scale, leading to limited participation.

Raising the bar for transparency

Mr. Nguyen Son, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation (VSDC), said that the Vietnamese stock market is facing a great opportunity to make a breakthrough in scale and quality, but to do that, many synchronous solutions are needed - from developing supply sources, expanding investment demand to improving transparency standards.

It is especially important to encourage large private enterprises and leading corporations (such as Sungroup) to list on the stock exchange, instead of simply relying on the equitization process of state-owned enterprises.

"If more large corporations go public, the market will have more quality, diverse and attractive sources of goods. This is also a direction in line with Resolution 68 of the Government , promoting the role and driving force of the private economy in national development," he emphasized.

Regarding new products, the VSDC chairman said that the market needs to diversify risk hedging tools soon. One of the issues that foreign investors are particularly concerned about is exchange rate risk, so the Government and the State Bank need to have appropriate policy directions.

In the internal market, in addition to existing index derivatives and bond futures, in the long term, it is necessary to consider deploying derivative products on individual stocks or new indices to create an additional layer of protection for investors.

At the same time, improving transparency and approaching ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) standards are also considered mandatory steps. Not only purely promoting stocks, Mr. Son believes that it is necessary to create new green products such as infrastructure bonds, corporate bonds associated with sustainable projects to create new investment channels, while also opening up international capital sources.

In fact, the proportion of foreign capital in Vietnam's market capitalization has decreased to 16-17%, lower than the previous level of 20%, showing the need for timely solutions to increase attractiveness with a supply of quality and attractive goods, according to Mr. Son.

Mr. Son said that VSDC has completed the digitization of the procedure for granting online transaction codes to foreign investors, eliminating the cumbersome steps previously. However, to truly attract foreign capital, the State Bank needs to improve, simplify and make more transparent the mechanism for opening indirect investment capital accounts for foreign investors.

Integrated IPO and listing process

To boost the supply of goods, removing regulatory bottlenecks is very important. Mr. Bui Hoang Hai, Vice Chairman of the State Securities Commission, said that regulations on IPOs and listings are relatively complete and in line with international practices.

However, there is a problem that the IPO and listing processes are separate. After IPO, it often takes a long time, up to several months, for a company to list, causing investors' capital to be illiquid for a long time, reducing the attractiveness of IPOs.

To remedy this, the State Securities Commission said that when amending Decree 155, it is submitting to the Government a plan to integrate the IPO and listing processes, significantly shortening the time. With this change, shares from IPOs can be traded immediately after only a short period of 1-2 weeks. This is expected to be a major step forward to increase the attractiveness of offerings, especially for domestic and foreign investment funds - which are restricted from investing in unlisted stocks.

"In addition, we are also studying amendments to relevant regulations to consider a mechanism allowing investment funds to expand investment limits with unlisted stocks," Mr. Hai emphasized.

The State Securities Commission said it will continue to coordinate with ministries and sectors to promote the divestment process. The goal is to increase the proportion of freely circulating shares of large enterprises with strong financial foundations, thereby improving the depth and attractiveness of the Vietnamese stock market.

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BINH KHANH

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/them-hang-cho-thi-truong-chung-khoan-nhieu-du-dia-tu-thoai-von-chuyen-san-phat-hanh-20250823074854037.htm