Hochiminh Stock Exchange expects securities trading to thrive till this year-end, riding on initial public offerings by State-owned enterprises and the operation of the first domestic exchange-traded fund.

According to Tran Anh Dao, the bourse's Deputy Director, Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex) and Vietnam Vegetable Oils Industry Corporation (Vocarimex) would implement IPOs this month. These were expected to attract the attention of both foreign and local investors.

The first domestic exchange-traded fund (VietFund Management VN30 ETF), which recently received the licence for its IPO, would also help boost the market liquidity, she said.

The bourse statistics showed that the total market capitalisation on the southern bourse reached 46.9 billion USD as of the end of the second quarter, 2.2 percent lower than the end of the first quarter, but up 21 percent over the end of last year.

Notably, the second quarter saw foreign investment in the HCM Stock Exchange increase from not only the first quarter but also last year's same period.

Between April and June they bought securities worth more than 16.3 trillion VND (777.6 million USD) and sold 11.2 trillion VND worth for net purchases of 5.1 trillion VND.

This compared to 15.9 trillion VND and nearly 15 trillion VND in the first quarter, and 10.8 trillion VND and 11 trillion VND a year earlier.

Their trading represented 22 percent of the transactions on the exchange.

SSI, HSC, and ACBS were the top brokerages, accounting for 13.22, 13.13, and 6.23 percent of the market.

According to VietstockFinance, with expectations of a recovery in the realty market, stocks of property sectors were the most heavily traded on the southern bourse in the first half of the year.

FLC Group (FLC), Tan Tao Group (ITA) and Hoang Quan Corporation (HQC) were the top three with respectively 8.4 million shares, 8.1 million shares and 4.1 million shares averagely traded per session.-VNA