My Stock Trading Journey in Vietnam

Story told by Yang Min Compiled by Sun Feng

I first noticed the Vietnamese stock market in 2016. I had been doing various jobs related to the overseas investment market and was closely following Southeast Asian cities like Singapore, Thailand,and Malaysia, but something happened in Vietnam at that point which grabbed my interest.

A Tidbit of News Worth a Mountain of Money

In September of that year, I read fromTalk Vietnam, a newspaper I subscribed to, that within a year and a half the Vietnamese government would withdraw state-owned shares from the two major beer giants, Saigon Brewery and Hanoi Beer, which would mark the beginning of Vietnamese state-owned asset reform. From 2017 to 2020, the Vietnamese government plans to withdraw funds from 406 state-owned enterprises while inviting in foreign capital with all deliberate speed.

This news opened my eyes to Vietnam’s capital market. The Vietnamese stock market, which was established on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange in 2000,started from a modest two or three stocks and 100-point index and cycled through the global bull market from 2006 to 2008,once reaching 1,179 points. In comparison, China A shares were established more than 10 years earlier, yet maxed out at only 5499.6 points.

The ensuing financial crisis forced it back down to around 250 points. The Vietnamese government concurrently tightened its financial policy,resulting in a sluggish stock market. It continued to fall between 2008 and 2013, with the index dropped to a low of 88 points and a high of a paltry 470 points.

我一直做境外投資市場觀察的相關工作，東南亞市場一般關注的都是新加坡、泰國、馬來西亞這些國家。但2016年發生的一件事情，讓我對越南產生濃厚興趣。

一則消息值千金

那年9月，我訂閱的報紙《談論越南》里出現一則消息，大意是說越南政府將在一年半內，從兩大啤酒巨頭西貢啤酒公司和河內啤酒公司撤出國有股份。這標志著越南國有資產改革拉開序幕：2017年至2020年，越南政府計劃從406家國有企業撤資，同時大力引入國外資本。

這則消息引起了我對越南資本市場的注意。越南股市自2000年起在胡志明證券交易所創立，從兩三只股票、100點指數開始，經過2006年至2008年的全球性牛市，最高達到1179點。而比它早10多年成立的中國A股，最高才5499.6點。

隨之而來的金融危機，瞬間將它打回到250點附近。越南政府大力收緊金融政策，股市幾乎腰斬，經過2008年至2013年的不斷下跌，指數下降到88點，最高時才470點。

這次越南政府的經濟改革，讓我聯想到越南的四大現象。

第一，我經常在越南各大銀行門口看到年利率高達7%左右的存款廣告，當然，貸款利率高，說明股票市場不景氣、工商企業減少投資、民眾減少消費。第二，我發現在越南租房很貴，而靠出租房屋可帶來7%至8%的年回報率，消費轉化成了價值投資。第三，越南的老板很有錢。因為買股票的少，政府為緩解上市企業的融資困境，推出一系列減稅政策，使得許多上市企業稅后利潤很高，開工廠就等于賺大錢。最后，在首都胡志明市，你會看到摩托車來來往往，異常忙碌，百姓一門心思搞經濟，沒多少人關心金融和股票，極像中國改革開放之初，股市剛剛成立的情形。

連續多年的通貨膨脹，讓越南股市只需45萬多美元實繳注冊成本，就可以申請上市，近半上市公司市盈率低于10倍，將近90%上市公司市凈率低于2倍。多年的熊市，讓越南股票價值嚴重被低估。

The Vietnamese government’s economic reforms reminded me of four major phenomena in Vietnam.

First, I have often seen advertisements for deposits with annual interest rates as high as 7% at the entrance of major banks in Vietnam. Of course, the high interest rate indicated a bearish stock market, reduced industrial and commercial investment, and decreased spending by average people.

Second, I found that rents in Vietnam were expensive, while renting out property could bring an annual return of 7% to 8%,which means consumption was converted into value investment.

Third, factory owners in Vietnam were very rich. Because not many people were buying stocks here, and the government had introduced a series of tax reduction policies to ease the financing difficulties of publicly listed companies. As a result,many of these firms had high after-tax pro fit margins. Opening a factory meant making a mint.

Finally, in the capital Ho Chi Minh City, motorcycles can be seen busily coming and going,with people focused on economic development. Not many people are concerned about finances and stocks, exactly like what happened in China when the Open-up Policy had just begun and stock markets were newly established.

After many years of inflation,the sum of 450,000 US dollars was required to pay for the registration fees to apply for listing in Vietnamese stock market. Nearly half of these public companies had a price-toearnings ratio less than 10 times,and nearly 90% of them had a price-to-book ratio of less than 2 times. Many a year’s bear market had led to a seriously undervalued Vietnamese stock market.

Picking up a Bargain Stock in the Bear market

There is a secret to knowing where to find bargain stocks in the bear market, most especially when the bear market constantly comes back with good news.

Analyzing Vietnam at the micro-level I discovered there are vast numbers of young people in the country. According to statistics, the average age of Vietnam’s population of over 100 million is made up of young people less than 30 years old.Its annual GDP growth rate is 6.2%, second only to China. the minimum wage is 224 US dollars,only one-third of China’s. Many factors including the rise of young consumer groups has made Vietnam extremely attractive.

Analyzing Vietnam on the macro-level, I found that there had been massive progress in Vietnam’s infrastructure,the people’s livelihood, and manufacturing industries after years of hard work. More importantly, Vietnam had signed a number of free trade agreements with China, the United States,Japan, the United Kingdom,Australia, and other countries that account for about 80% of the global GDP. With China’s Belt and Road initiative and a series of multilateral trade agreements or proposals signed, the economic stimulus to and open attitude of Vietnam towards trade had taken the lead throughout Southeast Asia.

With a series of financial deregulations, on September 8, 2017, the Vietnamese stock market broke through 800 points which it had failed to reach for 10 years. In 2017, the market value of the Vietnamese stock market reached 3,500 trillion dong (1 Chinese yuan equals to 3617 Vietnamese dong), a year-on-year increase of 80.5%, equivalent to 70.2% of the GDP, while the stock market’s liquidity increased by 66%. The total net purchase made by overseas investors amounted to 4,617 trillion dong, the highest level in 10 years. It can only be described as investment on an otherworldly scale.

Top Ten and Trend Investing

On January 22, 2018, at the close of market trading in the Ho Chi Minh City stock exchange,trading volume rose so sharply that technical problems occurred and the market was closed for two days.

熊市大膽撿便宜

在熊市撿便宜，是炒股一大訣竅。當熊市不斷遇上利好消息時，更是撿便宜的上佳時間。

在更微觀層面上，我發現越南到處都是年輕人。據統計，越南人口超過1億，平均年齡低于30歲。年GDP增長率達6.2%，僅次于中國；最低工資224美元，僅為中國的三分之一。年輕消費群體崛起等多項因素，決定了越南的吸引力。

放大到宏觀層面，我發現經過幾年時間的埋頭苦干，越南基建、民生、制造業等出現極大的復蘇。更重要的是，越南與中國、美國、日本、英國、澳大利亞等占全球GDP約80%的國家，簽訂自貿協定，一帶一路等多項多邊經貿協議或倡議，經濟刺激和開放態度領先整個東南亞地區。

隨著一系列對金融政策的松綁，2017年9月8日，越南股市沖破10年來未能沖上的800點。2017年越南股市市值達3500萬億盾（1人民幣=3617.1196越南盾），同比增長80.5%，相當于GDP的70.2%，股市流動性增長66%。境外投資者凈買入總額達4617萬億盾，為10年來最高值，可謂是水大魚大。

十大板塊與趨勢投資

2018年1月22日，在胡志明市股票交易市場收盤集合競價時間，交易所交易系統因交易量迅猛上漲，發生技術問題，休市兩天。

股市火爆到交易所崩潰，這在全球資本市場都是難得一見的。但若要具體到買哪一只股票會賺，我只能說見仁見智了。不過關注以下十個板塊，至少會成倍地降低失敗率。

它們分別是房地產、銀行金融、證券、醫療藥品、機場、塑料管、建筑、信息技術、鋼鐵、紡織這十個產業板塊。

前幾年，我買了兩只股票，一只是空調股——越南一年到頭都很熱，當時經常停電；另一只是電纜通信股，因為我看到越來越多的年輕人開始玩起了手機游戲，相信這兩只股會大大受益于越南經濟的發展。兩年時間內，這兩只股票給我帶來十幾倍的收益。

在我看來，越南現在的股市，屬于趨勢投資。在宏觀和微觀經濟政策不斷正向刺激的情況下，看對了趨勢，任何一個消息都是利好。其實這種選股邏輯，完全可以照搬20世紀90年代在中國股市的投資。

越南國有資產改革帶來了空前的利好。比如，在越南，很多國企已取消其外資持股限制，包括Vinamilk、Domesco、CMC、evetpia等大型公司。同時，越南擬取消67種經營業務的限制條件，以吸引外資流入。

在這種情況下，包括三星、LG、英特爾等企業都開始在越南擴大產能。這兩年，越南預計將迎來高達200家的IP0高峰，類似于中國2005年的股改之后，A股爆發一輪大牛市。

而在2016年IPO的西貢啤酒、越南橡膠集團、濱城集團、黑水、越捷航空等公司，作為消費品、工業品、房地產、基建、航空方面的代表，都分別完成了股改，并實現在股市方面的資本增值。

股市無定法。股市有風險，入市需謹慎。這句話放在入局越南市場時更為重要。除了由于地域原因，對越南股市不易深入了解之外，越南政治的穩定性、經濟政策的可持續性等方面，都是需要考慮的因素。

（摘自《商界》2018年第3期）

The stock market was so hot that exchanges collapsed, which is rare even in global capital markets. However, in terms of which specific stocks have earning potential, I can only say that’s a matter of opinion. However,focusing on the following ten will at least mitigate the risk.

My personal top ten is real estate, banking finance, securities,pharmaceuticals, airports, plastic pipes, construction, information technology, steel, and textiles.

In the past few years, I have bought two stocks, one was an air-conditioner stock, since Vietnam was hot all year round and blackouts were frequent at the time; the other was a cable communication stock, because I saw more and more young people starting to play games on their mobile phones. I believed these two stocks would greatly benefit from Vietnam’s economic development. And in two years,these two stocks increased in value tenfold.

In my opinion, the current stock market in Vietnam is more about trend investment. With the positive and stimulating macro and microeconomic policies, catching the right wave will just result in good news for the investor. In fact, this stock selection logic is an absolute mirror image of the Chinese stock market in the 1990s.

The state-owned assets reform in Vietnam has brought unprecedented benefits. For example, in Vietnam, many state-owned enterprises have cancelled their foreign ownership restrictions, including large companies such as Vinamilk,Domesco, CMC, and Evetpia. At the same time, Vietnam intends to abolish the restrictions on 67 types of business operations in order to attract foreign capital inflows.

In this case, companies including Samsung, LG, and Intel have begun to expand production capacity in Vietnam. In the next two years, Vietnam is expected to see as many as 200 IPO peaks,which may be similar to what happened after China’s stock reform in 2005, that saw a big bull market break out in A shares.

Companies IPOed in 2016 like Saigon Beer, Vietnam Rubber Group, Ben Thanh Group,Blackwater, and Viet Jaya Airlines, as the representatives of consumer products,industrial products, real estate,infrastructure, and aviation, have all completed their share reforms and achieved capital appreciation in the stock market.

The Vietnamese stock market comes with no guarantees, there is a myriad of risks, and one should exercise great caution upon entering. The Vietnamese market is not for the weak or the timid.Besides the geographical reasons making it difficult to understand the depths of Vietnam’s stock market, other factors also need to be taken into consideration,such as the stability of Vietnam’s politics and the sustainability of its economic policies.

(FromBusiness Magazine,March 2018. Translation:Lu Qiongyao)