VN-Index eyes 1,500 points this year: analysts

Low deposit interest rates, foreign investment inflow and rising numbers of new investors are set to be the main contributors to VN-Index’s gain in the rest of the year to hit 1,500 points, analysts of Viet Dragon Securities Corp (VDSC) said in a note.

The latest Covid-19 impacts will still keep the interest rate low and push investors to look to stock as an attractive asset class, they said.

This is indicated by the VND86 trillion ($3.76 billion) worth of cash in securities accounts ready to be used by the end of the second quarter, they added.

Foreign investors were net buyers for the first time since January last year, with major contributions by Taiwanese exchange-traded fund Fubon.

The number of new retail investors hit 721,000 in the first seven months, 1.8 times that of last year.

But VDSC expects the figure to increase even more as this is still low compared to regional peers.

Dragon Capital Group, one of the biggest equity investors in the country with $5.8 billion worth of capital, said the index may advance another 10 percent to 1,500 points provided Covid-19 vaccinations curb new virus cases in coming weeks.

If Vietnam could control the outbreak, it would "get back on track to where it was before this fourth wave," Bill Stoops, chief investment officer at the group, told Bloomberg.

Both Dragon Capital and VDSC favors MWG of electronics retail chain Mobile World and FPT of technology giant FPT Corporation.

VN-Index last month plunged over 12 percent as the novel coronavirus spread across Ho Chi Minh City, where over 159,900 cases have been confirmed to date.

But the index is now recovering. It closed Thursday at a six-week high of 1,374 points.

The country aims to vaccinate 75 percent of its population by early next year. So far, around 15.8 percent have received the first dose.