Vietnam among Asia-Pacific’s top-performing markets in 2024 first half: CNBC

An article by the business and financial news site CNBC has named Vietnam among Asia-Pacific’s three top-performing markets in the first half of this year, besides India and Japan.

As per the article, Vietnam expects to see a GDP growth rate of between 6% and 6.5% in 2024 on the back of robust imports and exports, as well as stronger manufacturing activity. The optimism in the Vietnamese market has also led to a more than 14% surge in foreign direct investments last year compared with 2022.

Andy Ho, chief investment officer of VinaCapital Group, was cited as saying now is the right time for investors to enter Vietnam stocks.

“Over the next 6 to 12 months, Vietnam will be a good market as valuations are inexpensive at about 11 to 12 times earnings for 2023. That’s about a 20% to 25% discount to the regional average,” Ho told CNBC. “The average daily trading volume in Vietnam has gone from 500 million USD a year ago to about a billion dollars daily today,” he said.

Investors should also be bullish on Vietnam’s e-commerce sector, Tyler Nguyen, vice-president and head of institutional equity sales at Maybank Securities Vietnam said. “We are seeing 20-30% year-on-year growth every year,” he told CNBC, pointing out that e-commerce accounts for only 2-3% of retail sales.

When asked about Vietnam’s possible entry into MSCI’s list of emerging market economies, Nguyen said the frontier economy was still “at a very nascent stage” but “we might see good news in 2025.”