The Swedish Tundra Vietnam Fund likened Vietnam’s stock market in 2018 to a roller coaster. In the first half of the year, the market performed well with the VN Index hitting the peak of 1,205 points in mid-April 2018. Meanwhile, in the second half, it fell to 892 points. The index decreased by 9.4 percent in 2018.

Warburg Pincus and GIC also experienced ups and downs with their investment deals in the year.

Most investment funds reported decreases in NAV in 2018 compared with 2017. SSI-SCA fund of SSIAM saw the NAV fall by 8.9 percent, while VFMVF1 fund managed by VietFund reported the NAV decrease of 9.6 percent, VFMVF4 by 11.8 percent and MAFEQI of Manulife Vietnam by 16.8 percent.

Some other funds saw their NAV decrease lower than the market decreases. TVGF, managed by Thien Viet Company (TVAM), for example, and VCBF managed by VCBF, both saw the NAV decrease by 3.7 percent. 

Vu Quang Dong, CEO of VCBF, said investment funds bear influences from the market performance. The VN Index, after five consecutive years of growth, has begun to decline.

Foreign investment funds such as Dragon Capital, VinaCapital, Vietnam Holdings Ltd, Pyn Elite Fund, and Tundra Vietnam Fund also reported the same problem.

Even the two largest funds in Vietnam, which are managing billions of dollars worth of capital, namely VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (VOF) managed by VinaCapital, and Vietnam Enterprise Investments Ltd (VEIL) of Dragon Capital, reported NAV decreases of 9 percent and 7.1 percent, respectively.

Most investment funds poured money into bluechips, including VNM (dairy producer), FPT (technology), PNJ (gold & jewelries), MWG (mobile phone distribution), DXG (real estate), HPG (steel manufacturing) and CTD (infrastructure development). 

Meanwhile, 2018 was the year when the stocks fell dramatically.

As a result, the bluechips, which once brought the biggest profits to the funds, turned out to be burden. For Pyn Elite, for example, HBC of the Hoa Binh Construction and MWG of The Gioi Di Dong were the major culprits that led to its NAV fall. 

Tundra’s NAV decrease was caused mostly by the investment in Nam Kim and Hoa Sen steel manufacturers.

However, in such a panorama of the stock market, some investment funds still mad profits thanks to wise investment deals. 

A December report showed that UpCom listed shares made a great contribution to VEIL’s performance managed by Dragon Capital. The Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) was the most profitable investment item for the fund, which amounted to 3 percent of its NAV.

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