Foreign investors interested in power stocks in Vietnam

Shares of electricity companies listed on the Hanoi bourse of Vietnam have attracted most foreign investors, local newspaper Vietnam News reported Tuesday.

Three electricity companies, the Vinh Son-Song Hinh Hydroelectricity Co., the Pha Lai Thermoelectricity Co. and the Khanh Hoa Power Co., whose shares are traded in the Hanoi Securities Trading Center, have accounted for nearly 80.2 percent of the total value of trade involving foreign investors, the paper quoted sources from the center in Hanoi capital.

Corporate officials of some fund management firms in Vietnam said many foreign investors are keen on shares of power enterprises because the country's official stock market is developing rapidly and still lacks shares of companies operating in such important sectors as electricity, telecommunications and banking.

Vietnam now has 49 listed companies, mainly operating in less important sectors, whose shares are traded under the mode of order matching at the Ho Chi Minh Securities Trading Center which was formed in 2000. The Hanoi Securities Trading Center, established last March, is a place for shares in equitized state-owned enterprises and shares held by the state in joint stock companies to be auctioned, and shares of unlisted joint stock firms, mainly small- and medium-sized enterprises, to be traded under the mode of negotiation.

The number of securities accounts opened by foreign investors for trading stocks at the Hanoi-based center increased to 859 in May 2006 from 419 in December 2005 and from 287 in July 2005. However, the proportion of stock transactions involving foreign investors remains small.

The first eight months of this year saw a total of 1.618 million shares worth 45 billion Vietnamese dong (VND) (over 2.8 million U.S. dollars) traded by the foreign investors at the center, making up less than 3.6 percent of the total value of traded securities.

Vietnam currently has 49 kinds of listed shares, 372 kinds of listed bonds, mostly government bonds, and 1 listed investment fund totaling nearly 65,932 billion VND (nearly 4.15 billion dollars). They are traded at the Ho Chi Minh City-based center.

Source: Xinhua