Hanoi (VNA) – The stock market has setrecords in terms of scores, liquidity and the number of new accounts this year,as investors have seen it a shelter amid complex developments of the COVID-19pandemic.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh StockExchange (HOSE) reached a new record high of 1,500.8 on November 25, up nearly36 percent from late 2020.

Liquidity is regularly at 1 billion USD, even hittingnearly 53 trillion VND (roughly 2.3 billion USD) on December 23.

According to the Vietnam Securities Depository (VSD), byNovember 30, there were 4,083,325 accounts in Vietnam’s securities market, 1.3million higher than the number in late 2020.

Mirae Asset Securities (MAS) said in 2021, the VN-Indexhas successfully surpassed the 1,200 point mark and conquered the 1,500 pointthreshold, despite the economy experiencing two consecutive pandemic outbreaks.

Banking, real estate, materials, basic construction, financialservices were the market leaders, contributing 31 percent, 23 percent, 15percent, 10 percent, and 8 percent, respectively to the growth of VN-Index.

The firm reported that by the end of November 2021,VN-Index increased by nearly 34 percent compared to 2020 and was named among themarkets with the highest profitability in the world.

Foreign investors have maintained a net sellingstrategy in 2021, with a total net selling value of nearly 61.6 trillion VND byDecember 17, more than four times higher than the net selling level last year.

Domestic individual investors net bought more than 84trillion VND in the first 11 months of the year, which was the main drivingforce to increase market liquidity and VN-Index continuously set new peaks in2021.

In the context of low interest rates, the population’sidle money shifted to the securities investment channel, with the number of newaccounts opened by domestic individuals remaining above 100,000 accounts each month.

Experts from the Vietcombank Securities Company (VCBS)forecast that the securities market will continue to be an attractiveinvestment channel, especially for individuals.

Nguyen Thi Hoa, from ACB Securities Company (ACBS),held that the increasing engagement of domestic investors has signaled the continuousdevelopment of the market.

A new trading platform of the HOSE, scheduled to be putinto operation in the second quarter of 2022, will help to facilitate thedevelopment of new products and lure more investments in the market, she said.

Echoing Hoa’s view, Tran Khanh Hien, Research Directorof VNDirect Securities Corporation, said the growth pace would be maintainedthanks to economic recovery and the participation of domestic individuals.

However, the main risk for the market in 2022 is stillhigher-than-expected inflation, which may lead to the roll out of tightenedmonetary policies, she said./.