The Hanoi Securities Trading Center’s new over-the-counter market, known as UpCom, which aims to “enhance transparency” and “protect the interests of investors,” opened on June 24 in Hanoi.
About twenty companies will initially trade on the new floor, including Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank and Thanh Cong Securities Inc. The number is expected to hit 200 by September.
Price moves for shares traded on the floor will be limited to ten percent a day.
Transactions will take place from 10am to 3pm, with a two-hour break starting from 11:30am
Trading in UpCom’s first session reached more than one million shares, worth nearly VND19 billion (US$1 million).
“This is the effort of management services to contract the free market and enhance transparency in the stock exchange,” said Vu Van Ninh, minister of the Ministry of Finance.
The establishment of UpCom will make the market healthier, said deputy PM Nguyen Sinh Hung at the opening ceremony, adding that the stock market is an important investment channel for the country’s economy.
According to Bloomberg, as part of Vietnam’s increased regulation of the markets, at least 19 companies with capital of less than VND80 billion have been forced to move from HCMC to Hanoi’s main exchange.
