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Fund managers looking before they leap
Fund managers are sitting on piles of cash waiting to dive into the slowly warming stock market.
Prudential Vietnam Fund Management Co. expects to spend some VND350 billion in cash and convertible bonds on the market this year.
The Ho Chi Minh City Securities Corp. said it had plans to pump VND1 trillion in cash into the exchange.
Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI), Vietnam’s largest brokerage, also has VND700 billion waiting to be spent.
Choi Chang Hoon, director of Thang Long Meritz Capital, said his company “is preparing” for a strong market rebound, which he expects will begin at the end of the year.
Analysts say investment funds are switching from stand-by mode to actively seeking the best picks on the stock market and on the informal OTC (over-the-counter) market.
They have sent representatives to attend the annual meetings of both listed and unlisted companies, analysts said.
A senior official from a foreign fund manager said his company was studying Vietnamese companies’ earning results before pumping money into the market.
Tran Dinh Long, chairman of the Hoa Phat Group (HPG), Vietnam’s largest steel maker, said several domestic and foreign fund managers had visited the group’s steel mills in the northern province of Hung Yen.
The Hoa Phat Group posted an after-tax profit of VND300 billion (US$16.8 million) on a revenue of VND1.612 trillion in the first three months of the year. The net profit accounted to 52 percent of 2009’s forecast.
Analysts from the Ho Chi Minh City Securities Corp. said Hoa Phat Group’s hefty earnings have gotten the attention of fund managers. Steel has been among the first sectors to benefit from the government’s economic stimulus packages, they said.
Statistics from the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange show that foreign investors bought more than 4 million shares in the group this month while selling only 1.35 million.
thanhnien, Dau Tu Chung Khoan
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