New securities account openings in March lowest in two years

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

The number of newly-opened securities accounts in March plunged to the lowest in the past two years, marking the sixth consecutive month the market did not record more than 100,000 new accounts, according to the Vietnam Securities Depository (VSD).

Compared to the peak liquidity period, the number of new accounts fluctuated between 200,000-450,000.

Despite the slowdown in new account openings, the Vietnamese stock market still shows great potential with over 7 million accounts, equivalent to about 7% of the population. Of this, 40,000 were registered by domestic and foreign investors.

The figure exceeds the target of having 5% of the population invest in the stock market by 2025 as outlined in the securities and insurance market restructuring plan. However, there are cases that one person has multiple accounts while new accounts do not record any transactions.

According to the SSI Securities JSC, the Vietnamese stock market is showing a fairly strong foundation as it rebounded by 3.9% in March and ended the first quarter with a growth of 5.7% on the VN-Index.

This positive trend is led by measures to address economic difficulties and financial market challenges, as well as positive news from foreign investors' cash flows.

The market also welcomed two interest rate cuts by the State Bank of Vietnam in mid and late March, which sent a strong message about the need to reduce interest rates to support economic growth. These are seen as highly flexible steps by the Government, given the macroeconomic challenges in the first quarter.

According to the SSI, the profits of several listed companies may still not enough to help them escape the trend of decline compared to the same period last year. It will be a factor that prevents VN-Index from making strong breakthroughs in the short term./.