Vietnam to move all Hanoi-listed stocks to Ho Chi Minh index in December under market overhaul

HANOI, Oct 1 : Vietnam will move all its listed stocks to the main Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange in late December, completing a long-planned market restructuring and ending equity trading on the Hanoi Stock Exchange.  

The announcement, made late on Wednesday, follows Vietnam's upgrade by FTSE Russell to secondary emerging market status and comes as the government pushes further reforms to attract foreign capital and support a longer-term ambition of securing a similar upgrade from MSCI. 

• The Vietnam Exchange, the state-owned holding company that owns both bourses, said the final trading day for Hanoi-listed stocks would be December 23, after which those would be suspended for two days to facilitate the transfer.

• From December 28, all listed stocks in Vietnam will be traded on the Ho Chi Minh index.

• The Hanoi bourse will continue to operate other securities markets under current regulations, including for bonds, derivatives and other financial instruments, according to the notice.

• The transfer will affect a small portion of the market, with the Hanoi market's capitalisation at 462.8 trillion dong ($17.82 billion), or about 5.4 per cent of the Ho Chi Minh index's 8,549 trillion dong ($329.23 billion), according to LSEG data as of October 1.

• The move marks the final stage of a restructuring plan for Vietnam's securities markets under finance ministry regulations that redefined the roles of the exchanges.

• In morning trade on Thursday, the benchmark VN Index fell 0.59 per cent and the HNX Index declined 0.71 per cent.