State-run Agribank, Vietnam's largest by assets, has boosted the investment in its stockbroking arm more than four times to expand financial services, a stock exchange statement said on Wednesday.
The Hanoi-based Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) increased the registered capital of its unlisted Agribank Securities Company to 700 billion dong ($43.4 million) in late June from 150 billion dong, the Hanoi OTC exchange said.
The decision came before the central bank ordered banks in late June to limit lending to stock investors to 3 percent of loans. It said banks which had lent more than that had until Dec. 31 to cut back to 3 percent.
Central bank officials said the move was to help banks avoid lending risks as loans to stock investors by several partly private banks had even reached around half of their debt.
But financial experts and bankers said the central bank directive would hold back the development of Vietnam's fledgling capital market.
The VN Index on the Ho Chi Minh exchange fell 2.98 percent and the Hanoi Securities Trading Centerdropped 10 percent on July 2 after the central bank imposed the curb.
On Wednesday, the VN Index edged up 0.67 percent to 1,029.85 points, a rise of 37 percent from the end of 2006.
Source: Reuters
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