Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam’s booming stock market,recognised as one of the best performers in the world, has raised the value ofmany securities firms.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange has gained 18.6 percentsince the beginning of this year. On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX Indexhas climbed 27.2 percent in the same period.

Shares of securities companies have been on the investors’favourite list, and many firms have seen their value doubling, and eventripling, in the first seven months of 2017. This impressive growth is largelyowing to the companies’ positive business results.

By August 4, the market value of 11 securities companies hadexceeded 1 trillion VND (44 million USD). The top four companies in the countryare Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), Viet Capital Securities JSC (VCI), HCMSecurities Corp (HCM) and VNDirect Securities JSC (VND).

SSI, valued around 13 trillion VND (573 million USD), is thelargest securities firm across all indicators, including charter capital,revenue and profit. Its share prices have climbed 30 percent thisyear, and on August 4 they were at 26,400 VND per share, which is lowerthan its peak of 28,600 VND a share on July 6.

Viet Capital Securities made its debut on the southern bourse onJuly 7, and has already joined the trillion-VND club at a market value of 7.3trillion VND. The company’s share price rose by 5 percent in a month and hastouched 60,000 VND apiece, the highest among securities shares.

The share value of HCM Securities, valued at 5.7 trillion VND, hasrisen 60 percent after the company revealed that it is raising its foreignownership limit to 100 percent. Its shares are at nearly 48,000 VND per unit.

Ranking in the fourth place in terms of market capitalisation at 3.6trillion VND, the shares of VNDirect Securities have leapt 90 percent toroughly 25,000 VND per share. The company has estimated its six-month pre-taxprofit at 322 billion VND.

In terms of the strongest growth, MB Securities JSC (MBS), Sai Gon-HanoiSecurities JSC (SHS), Vietinbank Securities JSC (CTS) and Agribank SecuritiesJSC (ARG) are on the top, with their share prices recording a three-digit rise.

Except for AGR, which is valued below the par value of 10,000 VND ashare, the stocks of the other three companies are between 14,000 VND and 17,000VND apiece.-VNA