Domestic investors help to create records in Vietnam's securities market  13:19  The stock market has set records in terms of scores, liquidity and the number of new accounts this year, as investors have seen it a shelter amid complex developments of the COVID-19 pandemic. The stock market has set records in terms of scores, liquidity and the number of new accounts this year. The stock market has set records in terms of scores, liquidity and the number of new accounts this year, as investors have seen it a shelter amid complex developments of the COVID-19 pandemic. The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) reached a new record high of 1,500.8 on November 25, up nearly 36 percent from late 2020. Liquidity is regularly at 1 billion USD, even hitting nearly 53 trillion VND (roughly 2.3 billion USD) on December 23. According to the Vietnam Securities Depository (VSD), by November 30, there were 4,083,325 accounts in Vietnam’s securities market, 1.3 million higher than the number in late 2020. Mirae Asset Securities (MAS) said in 2021, the VN-Index has successfully surpassed the 1,200 point mark and conquered the 1,500 point threshold, despite the economy experiencing two consecutive pandemic outbreaks. Banking, real estate, materials, basic construction, financial services were the market leaders, contributing 31 percent, 23 percent, 15 percent, 10 percent, and 8 percent, respectively to the growth of VN-Index. The firm reported that by the end of November 2021, VN-Index increased by nearly 34 percent compared to 2020 and was named among the markets with the highest profitability in the world. Foreign investors have maintained a net selling strategy in 2021, with a total net selling value of nearly 61.6 trillion VND by December 17, more than four times higher than the net selling level last year. Domestic individual investors net bought more than 84 trillion VND in the first 11 months of the year, which was the main driving force to increase market liquidity and VN-Index continuously set new peaks in 2021. In the context of low interest rates, the population’s idle money shifted to the securities investment channel, with the number of new accounts opened by domestic individuals remaining above 100,000 accounts each month. Experts from the Vietcombank Securities Company (VCBS) forecast that the securities market will continue to be an attractive investment channel, especially for individuals. Nguyen Thi Hoa, from ACB Securities Company (ACBS), held that the increasing engagement of domestic investors has signaled the continuous development of the market. A new trading platform of the HOSE, scheduled to be put into operation in the second quarter of 2022, will help to facilitate the development of new products and lure more investments in the market, she said. Echoing Hoa’s view, Tran Khanh Hien, Research Director of VNDirect Securities Corporation, said the growth pace would be maintained thanks to economic recovery and the participation of domestic individuals. However, the main risk for the market in 2022 is still higher-than-expected inflation, which may lead to the roll out of tightened monetary policies, she said./. VNA