Foreign investors pull $932mn from Vietnam's HoSE as ownership hits 8-year low

Foreign ownership on HoSE continued a downward trend in October, standing at approximately 13 percent as of October 29, down from 13.16 percent at the end of September, 14.69 percent at the end of 2025 and 16.83 percent at the end of 2024.

The ratio briefly fell to 12.93 percent on October 19, the lowest level in the available data series dating back to late October 2018.

Compared with its peak of 21 percent in February 2020, foreign investors’ shareholdings have declined by around eight percentage points.

The decline has coincided with a prolonged net-selling streak.

Foreign investors turned net sellers on the Ho Chi Minh City bourse during the first 10 months of 2026, with net sales totaling VND121.905 trillion ($4.7 billion).

October’s net sales reached VND24.024 trillion, up five-fold against the previous month and accounting for almost 20 percent of the cumulative net-selling value since the beginning of the year.

It was the largest monthly net-selling value in 2026 and the third-highest since late 2018, behind VND42.2 trillion ($1.6 billion) in August 2025 and VND25.244 trillion ($979 million) in September 2025.

Across HoSE, the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) and the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM), foreign investors net-sold VND20.848 trillion ($809 million) in October.

Notably, nearly 60 percent of the net-selling value on HoSE came from put-through transactions, totaling VND14.203 trillion ($551 million).

The two sessions on October 6 and 9 alone saw VND12.295 trillion ($477 million) in net sales through this method, accounting for nearly 87 percent of the month’s total net sales from put-through orders.

In order-matching transactions, foreign investors recorded net sales of VND9.821 trillion ($381 million), double the September figure. However, both buying and selling activity declined, by 28 percent and 15 percent, respectively, from the previous month.

Foreign investors’ matched-order purchases fell to VND31.071 trillion ($1.2 billion), while sales totaled VND40.892 trillion ($1.5 billion).

Buying activity contracted more sharply than selling, widening the gap between the two. Foreign investors were net sellers in 19 of the month’s 22 trading sessions.

Meanwhile, the benchmark VN-Index shed 27 points, or 1.53 percent, during October.

The substantial net-selling value therefore reflected both share transfers via put-through transactions and a relative decline in buying activity through order matching.

Foreign participation also varied considerably across individual stocks, beyond the overall decline in ownership on HoSE.

Of the 1,199 stocks with foreign ownership recorded in early November, excluding fund certificates, 239 had no foreign ownership, accounting for nearly 20 percent of the total.

A total of 505 stocks, or 42.1 percent, had foreign ownership below 0.1 percent.

Notably, 797 stocks, equivalent to 66.5 percent of the total, had foreign ownership below 1 percent

When the threshold was raised to below 5 percent, the number increased to 952 stocks, or 79.4 percent. By contrast, only 102 stocks had foreign ownership of 20 percent or higher.

The median foreign ownership ratio across the stocks surveyed was just 0.26 percent, compared with an average of 5.15 percent, indicating an uneven distribution of foreign shareholdings among listed companies.

The disparity was also evident across sectors.

Banking stocks had a median foreign ownership ratio of 12.53 percent, nearly 36 times the 0.35-percent recorded by real estate stocks.

Financial services stood at 3.87 percent, while food production and chemicals recorded 0.56 percent and 0.34 percent, respectively.

At several major banks, foreign investors held 24.44 percent of VietinBank, 22.27 percent of VPBank, 20.81 percent of Techcombank and 19.85 percent of Vietcombank.

In other sectors, foreign ownership stood at 49.65 percent at dairy firm Vinamilk, 49 percent at electronics retailer Mobile World Investment Corporation, 29.92 percent at brokerage SSI Securities, and 26.85 percent at tech giant FPT.

Despite their similar foreign ownership ratios, the remaining room for foreign investors to buy shares in Vinamilk and Mobile World Investment Corporation differed significantly.

Vinamilk had around one billion shares still available for foreign investors, while Mobile World Investment Corporation had only about 1,700 shares remaining, meaning it was almost at its current foreign ownership limit.

Foreign ownership stood at 6.3 percent at property developer Vinhomes and 3.07 percent at Vingroup, leaving room for foreign investors to purchase approximately 3.6 billion and 3.5 billion additional shares, respectively.

These differences reflect the gap between actual foreign shareholdings and the applicable foreign ownership limits at individual companies.