Vietnam's Stock Market Blossoms in 2006
Vietnam’s stock market boomed in 2006, recording total market capitalization of VND220 trillion, or $13.8 billion, as of the end of the year, representing an increase of more than 20 fold from the end of 2005.
The market’s size in 2006 accounts for 22.6 per cent of the country’s GDP, far beyond the initial target at 5 per cent of GDP set by the market watchdog in earlier last year. The Government reported Vietnam’s 2006 GDP at VND973 trillion.
The VN-Index of Vietnam’s main stock exchange in Ho Chi Minh City ended the year 2006 at 751 points, 2.5 times higher than the level of the end of 2005.
The HASTC-Index of the OTC market in Hanoi closed the year at 243 points, also seeing a boom of 170 per cent from the end of 2005.
The year 2006 witnessed a breakthrough in number of listed companies. Listed firms increased from only 32 at the end of 2005 to 193 companies as of the end of 2006.
(VNA, Securities Investment)
Vietnamese
