Vietnam witnessed the addition of 110,761 new securities accounts in April, bringing the total number of domestic securities accounts to over 7.7 million, according to data provided by the Vietnam Securities Depository (VSD).

Due to the impact of COVID-19, Việt Nam’s GDP growth rate reached a low point in the first quarter of 2023 at 3.4 per cent but has shown robust growth in recent quarters.

The elevation of the stock market to "emerging" status can help Vietnam attract an additional 10 billion USD in both direct and indirect investment, KB Vietnam Securities JSC (KBSV) reported, citing the World Bank (WB).

Last week’s recovery is viewed as a technical rebound following a recent sharp and significant decline. As a result, a potential correction scenario for the VN-Index cannot be ruled out.

The KRX system has not undergone a comprehensive acceptance review involving investors, contractors and beneficiary units.

On April 30, securities companies will conduct the transition test. The trading date on the new KRX system is May 2. The trading data will be based on the end-of-day data from April 26.

In the first-quarter report, KB Vietnam Securities (KBSV) estimated that the new system would boost the average daily trading value of the VN-Index by 30-70 per cent compared to the recent five-year average liquidity.

The market is likely to continue recovering to the area of 1,280-1,300 points, but a risk of strong fluctuations remains as cash flows stay weak, said experts.

The age-old concept "the customer is king" is becoming more visible in the Vietnamese stock market, where more and more securities firms are aggressively lowering or even eliminating transaction fees to attract and retain customers.

This zone acts as a critical threshold for market stability, providing some respite amidst the prevailing volatility.

More than 163,000 new stock trader accounts were created during March this year, an increase of over 50,000 accounts compared to January, marking March the month with the most accounts created in the last six months.

The stock market capitalisation on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) reached over 5.22 quadrillion VND (208.5 million USD) in March of this year, marking a 3.1% increase from February and a substantial 23.1% increase from the end of 2023.

The company is completing procedures with the information security management agency to officially connect with the two stock exchanges, expected to be completed today.

Vietnam remains in the watch list for a possible reclassification from frontier to secondary emerging market status, according to FTSE Russel’s Country Classification review in March.

As they have a proven track record of complying with payment obligations, implementing a non-100 per cent pre-funding trading mechanism for this group helps mitigate risks.

The online securities trading system at VNDirect Securities Company (VNDirect) is likely to have suffered from a data encryption hack for extortion.

The stock market in Vietnam is expected to gain popularity among domestic individual investors due to its accessibility, profit potential, and demographic and income level improvements.

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) is seeking opinions on amending several legal provisions to remove various bottlenecks and meet the criteria for stock market upgrades by rating agencies.

VNDirect, the first online trading broker in Vietnam, said on March 25 that it has resolved a cyberattack by an international organisation on its system and has been making efforts to restore the entire system to limit disruptions in transactions.

Vietnam's ambition to elevate its stock market from "frontier" to "emerging" status by 2025 faces two key hurdles, including pre-trade margin requirements for foreign investors and foreign ownership ratios in certain sectors.