Hanoi (VNA) – The market capitalisation ofstocks and fund certificates has seen significant growth this year, equivalentto more than 80 percent of GDP and exceeding the goal set for 2020, accordingto an official.

As of September 30, 2018, 739 companies and five fundcertificates had been listed on both the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) and Ho ChiMinh Stock Exchange (HOSE), with market capitalisation exceeding 4.34quadrillion VND (185.9 billion USD), up 23.6 percent compared to the end of 2017,said Vice Chairman of the State Securities Commission (SSC) Pham Hong Son.

An average of more than 6.76 trillion VND (289.6 millionUSD) worth of shares were traded in each session, up 39.5 percent from lastyear.

A total 778 firms were traded on the Unlisted PublicCompany Market (UPCoM) with the market capitalisation at 774 trillion VND(33.15 billion USD), up 11 percent. Each session on the UPCoM had averagetrading value of 392 billion VND (16.8 million USD), up 62 percent.

The market value of Government bonds (G-bonds) hit 1quadrillion VND (42.8 billion USD) in the first nine months of 2018, up 8.6percent from the end of 2017. Some 9.4 trillion VND (402.66 million USD) wereraised from the G-bonds at each auction on average, up 5 percent.

Vietnam has taken moves to improve information disclosurequality and transparency of listed companies on both local exchanges and UPCoM thisyear, Son said, citing the HNX’s launch of a programme to assess quality andtransparency of information disclosure of major firms as an example.

These firms account for about 80 percent of the UPCoM’scapitalisation, many of them State-owned and industry leaders, said HNXChairman Nguyen Thanh Long.

It is important to encourage them to produce high-qualityand transparent disclosure statements to facilitate better corporate governanceand more effective operations, Long noted.

The SSC plans to prioritise maintaining the stability andsustainability and foster the restructuring of the securities market, Son said.

To this end, the Government, Ministry of Finance and SSCwill undertake several measures, including speeding up drafting of the revised Lawon Securities; further bolstering stock market restructuring on four pillars –financial product restructuring, investor base expansion, market intermediariesrestructuring, stock exchange restructuring; increasing supply of financialproducts and improving their quality; and introducing new products to themarket. –VNA