Japanese investors attracted by Vietnamese stock market

Vietnam’s stock market proves to attract Japanese securities investors, who hope to make high profit in the young market.

More and more foreign tourists come to Vietnam to open transaction accounts at Vietnamese securities companies, hoping to make high profit in the young market. It is estimated that 50-60% of them are Japanese.

To serve the increasingly high number of Japanese investors who come to open transaction accounts the Saigon Securities Incorporated (SSI) has set up a division specialising in dealing with Japanese investors.

Nguyen Huynh Bach Khoa, Deputy Head of the brokerage division, said that not only Japanese people who live and work in HCM City but Japanese tourists also were coming to open transaction accounts at the company.

Previously, some 5-10 accounts were opened every week, but the figure has risen to 40-50 in the last two months. SSI’s representative said that approximately 1,800 foreign investors had opened transaction accounts at SSI, including 1,500 Japanese investors.

Bao Viet Securities Company (BVSC) has also reported a sharp increase in the number of accounts opened at the company. According to Pham Thanh Hung, a staff at BVSC, the number of new foreign investor accounts has increased by 200-300% over 2006. Most Japanese investors are optimistic about their investment deals in Vietnam. They have said that they regret not coming to Vietnam sooner, and they do not want to delay their investment deals any more.

Omura, who is managing JAIC Fund in HCM City, said that Japanese investors were really very interested in Vietnam’s stock market. Previously, they just focused on four main markets, the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), but they are now shifting to make investment in Vietnam. They have realised that the said markets prove to be quite risky, while Vietnam, an emerging market, seems to bring stable profit. Making investment in Vietnam proves to be a good choice for Japanese investors, as they cannot make such a high profit margin in Japan, where the bank interest rate is very low, at 0.1-0.2% per annum.

Haru, who has just opened a transaction account at SSI, told a Nguoi lao dong reporter that she planned to make long-term investment in Vietnam, a young and developing market.
Leaders of securities companies said that most foreign investors believed that they could make high profit with their investment deals in Vietnam.

“Most of them are long-term investors, so they do not fear the ups and downs of the market. Some of them even consider the ups and downs as opportunities for investment,” they said.

Source: VNE