As we are not all that far from approaching the end of the year, I thought I would mention that this is most likely the last blog post this year. Another project has come up for me that warrants more attention and more or less I feel like I have covered most research topics I wanted to explore on this blog, the main ones anyway.
One topic I had not fully explored, was that I had not yet got around to opening up a stockbroking account in Vietnam as it wasn’t a huge priority for me. The recent falls in the stock market though are making me keener to get onto this sooner. For those curious though, I did have some helpful discussions with VN Direct (broker), and also Standard Chartered Bank (for the IICA) in HCMC. The process wasn’t different to what I expected in this past blog post of mine below:
HOW TO OPEN A STOCKBROKING ACOUNT IN VIETNAM
Those who have done business in Vietnam would be aware that notarization, paperwork and stamps etc are to be expected so this process is no different. That is not a criticism however, I have found all over the world in recent years opening accounts requires a fair bit more time and patience and form filling compared to only a decade ago.
Here is the past blog post I referred to, so having now spent some time on the ground and gone through these questions with a broker in Vietnam this still seems like a fair summary to me.
WILL THE VIETNAM STOCK MARKET KEEP FALLING?
I have no idea! 😊. I was asked this recently however and I must concede that my hunch that Vietnam stocks may not do as bad as US stocks in 2022 in a bearish environment is looking incorrect, at least for the time being. The view was based primarily on far more attractive valuations and EPS growth in Vietnam versus the US.
The way I am playing it anyway is that I haven’t added Vietnam stock exposure over the last few months even though there have been large declines. I am not that optimistic the worst is over for US stocks, and realistic that if that is the case then Vietnam’s stock market can easily be dragged down with it.
In short, if I see the S&P500 suffer further damage to say circa 3,300 level it is probably a safe bet to assume I am adding a bit of exposure to stocks correlated to Vietnam. I am eyeing at the moment possibly one of the CEFs I have mentioned before in the Dragon Vietnam Enterprise Investments Ltd(VEIL LN), managed by Dragon Capital. Also a stock listed on the ASX in United Overseas Australia.
Below are some links to follow with a bit more color on those 2 investments.
SHARESIGHT PORTFOLIO TRACKER REVIEW 2022 – VIETNAM STOCK MARKET (vietnamesestockmarket.com)
If it is not those 2, and the market has been falling then it probably means I have decided to progress opening up a Vietnam stock broking account and gone with some direct holdings. If that is the case, I shall try and note in the comments area later.
On that subject, if any other readers out there have gone through this process and have some tips with other good broker / bank options to use let me know. Or if you are a Vietnam broker who has stumbled on this feel free to get in touch with me. If you can make it nice and easy for me, we can even discuss me giving your brokerage services a recommended mention on the blog here 😊.
With the plunging Vietnam stock market of late, I didn’t want to be “that guy” who blogged about Vietnam stocks then stopped just because the market is falling! That is one of the purposes of this blog update, and saying I might be going quiet for a while.
Whilst I am going quiet on the blog for a little while personally, as mentioned it is to do with another work project coming up for me. I am still of the view that Vietnam stocks are looking increasingly attractive and am a hopefully buyer on the dip.
Despite this, feel free to refer back to the comments area on this particular blog post. As if I progress with a Vietnam broking account, and / or add to my Vietnam stock exposures in any way, I’ll make a quick note in the comments thread below on this blog post.
SHOULD FOREIGNERS OPEN UP A STOCKBROKING ACCOUNT IN VIETNAM?
This is more of a personal decision than anything. As I have alluded to previously, typically a foreigner interested in the Vietnam stock market can probably just stick to the funds I have reviewed previously. I say this as it is likely many foreigners are only allocating a small portion of their portfolio to Vietnam. An allocation size that possibly doesn’t warrant consuming time on opening accounts and analyzing individual Vietnam stocks.
I am also probably fitting that description in regard to bothering to spend the time in such a way. However I am in a different position to many in that I spend a significant amount of time during the year in Vietnam. That just makes the account opening procedure potentially a lot easier. It also gives you some knowledge of seeing some key Vietnam brands and economy close up. It also means the process of getting sale proceeds from Vietnam back to your own country may not be as important, if you often have plenty of expenditures based in Vietnam.
So even for someone who only stays in Vietnam a month a year, they could see some value in having a stockbroking account in Vietnam. It is fair to say governments in the world have surprised many since the pandemic in terms of control they exert. Having a diversified portfolio not only with the global stocks you own, but WHERE the custody etc of the securities / banking is held is increasingly important in such an environment I would argue. An account in Vietnam from that perspective, gives you added diversification in a different way for example than if you buy a popular Vietnam ETF listed on the US stock exchange.
VIETNAM STOCK MARKET OUTLOOK 2023 AND FUTURE BLOG POSTS
Hopefully for Vietnam stock market investors, 2023 will be better than what 2022 looks like at the time of me writing this!
As I am trying to spend more time on my Australian investments now (there is an investment product I have partnered up with someone that hopefully gets launched soon, I can maybe add some details soon here about that), this might be my last blog post for quite a while here.
However please consider bookmarking my site page and even still subscribing as there still could well be some posts added in the future. The home page of this site I have Vietnam stock market news feeds displaying for a bit of the latest goings on in the market you can check out. I am also open minded if a follower out there wants to write some articles a bit for the site here in 2023. It would be interesting if a Vietnamese local particularly wanted to write about the stock market. It won’t make you rich but if you enjoy writing about the Vietnam stock market, doing so and picking up some freelancer money could be fun for you. Feel free to get in touch with me valueinvestingforaliving@gmail.com
I hope though many of the articles I have written in the last 18 months gives many a very useful overview of how to invest in the Vietnam stock market. I have tried to make them relatively “evergreen”, so that can be another reason to bookmark the page. As I expect many of the fund reviews, and overviews of the economy, stock market etc should still be relevant even in a few years from now.
Thanks again for reading my blog, and below you can still subscribe if you wish.
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Thought I would give a quick update here as planned as I did end up opening my Vietnam broking account. VN Direct and Standard Chartered Bank were helpful so I might write more about that in a blog post next year. I bought Vietinbank stock (CTG) today at 27.20. In an ideal world my account would have been set up earlier in November much nearer the lows 😊.
Still I wasn’t that fussed as early November I added some HK/China/Asia exposure that I was contemplating using for Vietnam stocks as they were falling instead. That is off to a promising start anyway. I discussed this on Seeking Alpha if anyone is interested, might be free from the paywall for certain users for a limited time I am not sure… https://seekingalpha.com/article/4553853-china-fund-review-chinese-stocks-are-not-uninvestable. I guess the region being in the emerging market class might also interest readers of this blog post, so I might also discuss this further when I get around to blogging again next year here.
Anyway back to Vietnam stocks. I remember taking a quick browse of the banking sector earlier this year, checkout these posts https://vietnamesestockmarket.com/2022/01/01/list-of-top-banks-in-vietnam/ and https://vietnamesestockmarket.com/2022/01/04/top-vietnam-banks-stock-market-valuations-and-outlook-2022/ here. Vietinbank caught my eye as being conservative, having a large presence and notably cheaper valuation. Whilst I thought I might initially make my Vietnam broking account hold some smaller under the radar companies, the big falls in 2022 across the board has meant I want to keep this pretty simple. A bank in a developing economy can be a good growth story yet the valuation here is one they put on poorly run mature developed economy banks. Also I noticed the Pyn Elite fund has made this a big bet this year and I respect the manager’s view there. I wanted my first stock here to be one I don’t have to worry about selling potentially for years. I shall add this stock to my Vietnam flavored sharesight portfolio tracker that I had mentioned in other posts, for the same value as the other individual stocks. I had mentioned how I wanted to add at least a holding each year to resemble an investor in accumulation mode.
In the above blog post I had ideally hoped Vietnam stocks to fall more in line with a falling Wall street. It didn’t really pan out that way as US stocks strengthened and Vietnam stocks weakened in early November.
Still I do have plans if the US stock market hits fresh lows again, and if Vietnam stocks are about the same level today or hopefully cheaper, well I will still as discussed looked to add potentially the Dragon Capital London Closed End Fund that I have mentioned before and UOS on the ASX upon any weakness. I may also top up on Vietinbank again if there is a correction.
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Just another quick note here as I said I would add some comments if I was accumulating some more Vietnam related stock exposures. Whilst not Vietnam listed, I did top up my UOS (asx listed) holding this week. I’ll add that as a 10k purchase to the sharesight Vietnam related portfolio I was tracking on the blog, using the last closing price of 53 cents. On a very long term view this company might make Vietnam a much bigger part of their overall business.
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