Vietnam’s top 10 listed firms capitalize on 2019

Conglomerate Vingroup maintained top spot with a market cap of $16.7 billion, up 27 percent year-on-year.

The rise came with its stock value rising 21 percent to VND115,000 ($4.98) apiece throughout the year.

The company announced it would withdraw from retail to focus on manufacturing and technology in the form of its VinFast auto brand and VinSmart electronics.

Second place was occupied by Vietcombank, Vietnam's fourth largest bank by asset, with a market cap of $14.4 billion, surging 74 percent year-on-year.

Its share price rose 69.8 percent year-on-year to VND90,000 ($3.9) at the end of last year.

The bank, among the four biggest state-owned lenders in the country, last year saw its charter capital increase by 3 percent to VND37.1 trillion ($1.6 billion) after selling a 3 percent stake to Japanese and Singaporean investors.

Vingroup’s property unit Vinhomes fell one place from 2018 to third on a market cap of $12 billion, up 13 percent.

It was followed by dairy giant Vinamilk, whose market cap fell 3 percent to $8.73 billion.

Vietnam's biggest lender by asset BIDV, claimed fifth place with a market cap of $7.99 billion, up 58 percent.

BIDV managed to up its charter capital to the country’s largest in 2019 at VND40.2 trillion ($1.74 billion) after selling a 15 percent stake to South Korea’s KEB Hana Bank.

The remaining five companies include state-owned gas producer Petrovietnam Gas (PV Gas), airport operator Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), the country's largest brewer Saigon Beer-Alcohol Beverage Corp (Sabeco) and private lender Techcombank, all having made the top 10 in 2018.

However, ACV, Sabeco and Techcombank saw their market caps falling 9-15 percent year-on-year.

Third largest bank by asset Vietinbank, the only new name on the chart this year, saw its market cap increase by 8 percent, but managed to make 10th place as food conglomerate Masan dropped out due to its market cap dropping 27 percent.