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Foreign investors optimistic about local stock markets
Dragon Capital predicts the number of listed companies in Vietnam will increase five times by 2010 with the total value of the stock markets reaching US$100 billion and daily trading exceeding $100 million.
Many analysts and fund managers expect Vietnam’s stock markets to finish the year in a healthy state, last Friday’s Vietnam’s Stock Market 2008 Through The Eyes of Foreign Investors Conference in Ho Chi Minh City heard.
Dragon Capital’s president Dominic Scriven said the nearly 100 companies listed on the country’s two stock exchanges might see an average 29.3 percent growth in profits and a 11.8 percent increase in earnings per share (EPS), while the average price-earnings ratio (P/E) might reach 17.
Though these estimates were not as good as last year’s performance, the local stock market showed potential in the medium and long term, he said.
PXP Vietnam Asset Management’s Director Kevin Snowball agreed.
He said the stock market’s long term prospects were bright.
And even at the moment, the prices of many shares as well as the P/E index were relatively low which he said was a good sign.
Snowball said the current low level of the Ho Chi Minh City stock exchange did not mean much to investors who should pay more attention to forecasts of listed companies’ revenues and profit in coming years.
Other foreign investors at the conference said despite the dismal start to the year, the local stock market would rebound and grow.
The benchmark VN-Index has lost 43 percent of its value this year, more than wiping out the gains of 2007.
In its latest report, HSBC was also confident about the local stock market.
It said in March alone, foreign investors bought a total $249 million worth of shares, the highest level since January 2007.
HSBC said if EPS grew by 20 percent this year, the average P/E index would be only 12, which meant investors should consider buying shares now.
Thanhnien
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