Vibrant blue oils

Novaland Investment Group’s head office in Nguyen Du Street, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. — Photo vinhomecitys.com

Some analysts from securities firms expected that the market’s bullish trend will continue this week, while others were more cautious and see a downward trend dominating the market.

The market benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) fell 8.54 points, or 0.68 per cent, in Friday’s trade to 1,238.71 points. The index hit a record high of 1,255.87 points on Wednesday.

For the week, the index still rose slightly by 0.57 per cent, while foreign investors net sold a value of over VND2.4 trillion.

Analyst from Saigon – Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS) said that the third straight weekly gain of the market and a new record in liquidity showed investors’ big interest during this period. However, based on Elliott Wave Theory, the index was likely at the end of wave 5 last week and is about to turn to corrective waves with a closest target being around 1,135 points.

Therefore, a downward trend might influence the market this week, SHS added.

The index struggled and strongly fluctuated around 1,250 points, but failed to break through the level in the last session. The market breadth, besides some blue-chip stocks in real estate sectors and steel stocks, was negative last week.

Tran Xuan Bach, a senior stock analyst from Bao Viet Securities Company, also expected that the market might continue to be weighed by selling pressure this week.

“The VN-Index still receives support from the zone of 1,225 – 1,232 points in some early sessions this week,” Bach wrote in a daily report to customers.

“The market is likely to be influenced by some large-cap stocks, as well as a strong division of stock groups during this period.”

Meanwhile, analysts from Viet Dragon Securities Corporation (VDSC) were more optimistic about the market as large cash inflows into the market in the last session limited the losses.

Sharing the positive view, MB Securities JSC (MBS) said that the last session’s steep fall has boosted cash flows into the market for bottom fishing, creating a notable recovery.

On the technical front, the upward trend, which has extended over the last two months, will continue with the support territory in the short-term being 1,220 points, MBS added.

The HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX) also declined 1.02 per cent on Friday to 293.11 points. For the week, the index fell 0.23 per cent.

Real estate stocks posted outstanding performance last week as it went against the market’s trend in most sessions. Followed by material stocks.

Of which, Vingroup JSC (VIC), Novaland Investment Group Corporation (NVL) and Hoa Phat Group (HPG) contributed the most to help the market cap losses. These stocks climbed 16.29 per cent, 4.73 per cent and 4.46 per cent, respectively.

On the contrary, top three stocks influencing the market’s trend were Vietnam Rubber Group JSC (GVR), JSC Bank For Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) and Vietnam Dairy Products JSC (VNM).

In general, Viet Nam’s stock market was not so positive last week despite the benchmark increasing slightly as selling pressure spread to all sectors and foreign investors net sold a value in the trillions of dong. — VNS

HANOI

PERFORMANCE

Glamour 2

8pm on April 24

L’Espace

2 Trang Tien Street, Hoan Kiem District,

A new music programme entitled “Glamour 2” should be a journey filled with nostalgia but full of new discoveries, honour notable French songs.

The event features the participation of foreign artists: pianist Max Schwingeling, guitarist and singer Kenjah David, guitarist Guillaume de Miribel, percussion artist Christopher Michael and bass artist Oosamu Sakurai; as well as Vietnamese singer Hua Thanh Tu and the Bamboo Tambourine group.

Ticket: VND200,000

Promotional ticket: VND150,000 (until April 17).

EXHIBITION

‘Virtual Private Realms’ Exhibition

Manzi Art Space

14 Phan Huy Ich Street, Ba Dinh District,

The exhibition ‘Virtual Private Realms’ brings together the works of 7 artists: Lananh Le, Din Sama, Nguyen Duc Huy, mi-mimi, Nghia Dang, Trinh Cam Nhi, and Ha Ninh, with a focus on their painting practices.

Belonging to the 9X (millennial) generation, these artists have contributed to a new wave of practitioners in the Vietnamese art scene.

Exhibition: Eyes without a Face

The exhibition area inside the Japan Foundation library

27 Quang Trung, Hoan Kiem District,

Eyes without a Face is a project co-organized by the Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Vietnam and Manzi Art Space, with support from the Goethe-Institut, and other organizations, individuals as well as close friends.

Exhibition: Retro

The Muse Art Space

47 Trang Tien Street, Hoan Kiem District,

RETRO is an exhibition that goes back in time. Retro is also a popular term in fashion, furniture design, and art.

The RETRO exhibition will present paintings and objects in line with the modern intellectual culture world in Vietnam, mostly from the beginning to the middle of the 20th century.

HO CHI MINH CITY

EXHIBITION

Exhibition “The Resonance of remembrance”

Vy Gallery

20 Nguyen Van Thu, Da Kao, District 1,

“The Resonance of remembrance” exhibition has been organised on the occasion of the whole country celebrating the biggest holiday, National Reunification – April 30.

The exhibition consists of 5 works, including 4 lacquer works and 1 oil painting for the purpose of conveying to the public the message of spiritual, historical and artistic values of the wars to preserve the country’s peace.

Sharp increases in capital contributions and share purchase

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), there were 1,321 valid projects invested in by Vietnamese enterprises abroad with a total registered capital of US$20.6 billion by the end of 2019. The disbursement of the investment capital was US$9.49 billion by the end of the same year.

Vietnamese enterprises have invested in 78 countries and territories across the world with the largest investments poured into Laos, Russia, Cambodia, Venezuela, and Myanmar. Enterprises invested in 18 key industries and sectors with the biggest capital running in the oil and gas industry, accounting for 38.4% of the total offshore investment capital.

About 15.3% of the investment capital was poured into agricultural, forestry and fishery sector while 12.8% of the capital was invested in telecommunications and information technology and 7.2% of the capital went into the hydroelectricity sector.

The number of small and medium-sized projects run by the private sector has increased over the years while the number of large-scale projects run by State-owned enterprises in the areas of oil and gas exploration and extraction, telecommunications, industrial crops and hydroelectricity has fallen sharply.

The volume of investment capital transferred abroad has tended to decrease since the 2015-2017 period due to a plummet in the number of large projects.

According to the MPI, accumulated profits transferred to Vietnam from abroad was approximately US$3 billion while the profit retained for reinvestment was about US$363.4 million. Nearly 10,000 Vietnamese workers have been sent abroad to work.

In addition, Vietnamese enterprises have established a significant amount of assets abroad including factories and production facilities worth billions of US dollars. These are favourable conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to expand their overseas investment and business activities in a context of deeper international economic integration.

Notably, investment abroad in 2019 was entirely implemented by the private sector with no projects conducted by State-owned enterprises. More and more large private corporations and domestic joint stock companies have invested in developed countries in order to expand their market and affirm their brands such as Vingroup, Vietjet, Thaco, T&T, Vinamilk, FPT, and others.

Investment forms are also diverse with an increasing number of investment projects in the form of capital contributions and share purchase in foreign enterprises.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said that there are Vietnamese enterprises that have spent US$3-5 million to buy shares of foreign enterprises that are now valued in the hundreds of millions of US dollars.

Major global changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic have led to a wave of mergers and acquisitions through capital contributions and share purchase at potential companies for very cheap prices. Vietnamese enterprises need to have big aspirations to participate in this market segment to accelerate the process of reaching out to the world and bringing greater value into the country.

To date, five Vietnamese enterprises have invested abroad with registered capital of over US$1 billion each including the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam), Military Industry and Telecoms Group (Viettel), Vietnam Rubber Group, Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, and Long Thanh Golf Investment and Trading JSC.

Besides these impressive achievements, there remain inadequacies including legal risks, international lawsuits and disputes, slow progress of projects, and ineffective implementation of projects, among others.

According to experts, the change in the investment tendency of Vietnamese enterprises in recent years has been market-oriented and consistent with the process of trade and investment liberalisation and international economic integration.

There is large room and great potential in international markets, thus, the most important thing for offshore investment is to perfect mechanisms and policies and create more favourable conditions for private enterprises to easily invest their resources abroad in order to transfer the profits to Vietnam. Meanwhile, enterprises need to improve their governance capacity, their ability to grasp the market and sufficiently strong cash flows.

The amended Law on Investment which will take effect on January 1, 2021 has completed policies on investment abroad regarding clear updates of cases prohibited from investment abroad, conditions accompanied with investment abroad, lending abroad, reporting the process of State management agencies related to investment abroad, the use of profits from overseas projects to contribute to other projects abroad, and others.

To prevent risks in offshore investment activities, the MPI has proposed the Government assign relevant agencies to review and evaluate investment trends abroad in the areas of real estate and the investments of foreign investors in Vietnam abroad in order to devise timely solutions to problems arising.

In addition, Vietnam should boost negotiations and early signing of investment promotion and protection agreements with countries receiving large investment from Vietnam or with Vietnam’s potential partners to create a legal framework for safe and effective investment abroad.

Disbursement during the period also declined by 5.1% to US$11.35 billion, as shown by data as of August 20.

There were nearly 1,800 new foreign-invested projects in the January-August period, with total capital pledges of US$9.73 billion, with the largest project being a natural gas in Bac Lieu Province worth US$4 billion.

The past eight months also saw foreign investors pledge an additional US$4.87 billion to existing projects and another US$4.93 billion in capital contributions.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, exports by the foreign sector, including crude oil exports, fell by 4.5% to US$113.3 billion, accounting for 65.1% of Vietnam’s export revenue.

Their imports also dropped by 5.3% to US$90.8 billion, meaning the sector recorded a trade surplus of over US$22 billion.

Manufacturing remained the most attractive to foreign investors, receiving US$9.3 billion, followed by power generation and distribution with US$4 billion and property trading with US$2.87 billion.

Singapore, the Republic of Korea and China were the three largest investors with respective capital pledges of US$6.54 billion, US$2.97 billion and US$1.75 billion.

With the natural gas project, Bac Lieu Province was the largest FDI recipient during the first eight months of 2020, followed by Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, which received US$2.86 billion and US$2.62 billion, respectively.

Passengers arrive at Chu Lai Airport in Quảng Nam Province. The central province plans to host international tourists with vaccine passports as part of a pilot project. Photo courtesy of Jetstar Pacific

QUẢNG NAM — The central province of Quảng Nam has put forward plans to host international tourists with vaccine passports and negative coronavirus tests.

As part of the plans, arrivals at Chu Lai Airport will stay at the assigned Hoiana resorts in Duy Xuyên District and Tui Blue Hotel in Núi Thành District for five or 10 days.

Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, Lê Trí Thanh confirmed the plans to Việt Nam News , stating that the province and managing boards of the two resorts and Chu Lai Airport authorities held a working session on preparations to soon host tourists with the proposed vaccine passports.

Thanh said the province will register with the Government to become the first province in Việt Nam to pilot the hosting of international visitors and roll out a ‘safe tourism’ programme.

“We plan to receive South Korean ‘vaccine passport’ tourists on chartered flights as part of the pilot project, and they (tourists) must test negative for coronavirus by Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR),” Thanh said.

“Chu Lai Airport will be given better medical testing equipment and coronavirus prevention measure for arrivals as well as the reception sites at the two hotels,” he said.

The chairman said the two hotels are far from community and residential quarters, and the two sites had been tested and surveyed by the Việt Nam National Administration of Tourism.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism also agreed with the pilot plan.

Thanh said all staff of the two hotels and task force members will be vaccinated and implement coronavirus preventive measures before hosting tourists.

Beach-front Hoiana integrated resort and hotel comlex and Tui Blue in central Quảng Nam Province are assigned to host the first  international visitors with vaccine passports. Photo by Thanh Hà

Quảng Nam Province’s tourism industry saw poor growth in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and storms and floods.

The province, which is home to the UNESCO-recognised world heritage sites Hội An ancient town and Chàm Islands-Hội An world biosphere site, saw tourism revenue decline by 82.7 per cent in 2020, hosting only 1.46 million tourists – an 81 per cent reduction from 2019.

The tourism association of Quảng Nam has inked an agreement to boost post-COVID-19 tourism in the region in 2021 with Đà Nẵng and Thừa Thiên-Huế. — VNS

Thang Long II Industrial Zone in My Hao District, Hung Yen Province.

The provincial governments have shown further plans to establish new IPs of roughly 23,400 ha in the future, which are all in notable markets surrounding HCM City. The ready-built factory market was also buoyant, with the expected new launch of roughly 897,000 sq.m of ready-built factories by the end of 2021.

Nguyen Hong Van, JLL Vietnam’s Director of Markets, said since technology conglomerates continue to eye Vietnam for production relocation, the demand for industrial land and ready-built factory remains vibrant.

To lure foreign investments, localities in the Northern area have shown strong commitment to promote IPs, with roughly 10,500 ha of additional supply in the future, she said.

In addition to existing markets, second-tier provinces like Hung Yen, Hai Duong or further North of Hanoi like Bac Giang and Vinh Phuc are emerging as potential destinations for foreign investors, fostering the rents in those areas to speed up at an expected year-on-year growth of about 8-10 per cent.

The ready-built factory market remains upbeat, with the expected new launch of roughly 332,000 sq.m of ready-built factories by the end of 2021, predominantly in Hai Phong and Bac Ninh.

According to JLL Vietnam’s quarterly report on Vietnam’s property market in the first quarter of this year unveiled on Thursday, Dong Nai and Binh Duong accounted for the biggest supply of both industrial land and ready-built factory sectors on the property market in the first quarter of this year.

The other localities still have a long journey to catch up to Binh Duong and Dong Nai’s industrial park supply as these two are the oldest-developed industrial markets. Whilst in terms of ready-built factory supply, Dong Nai overwhelmed other provinces due to its well-developed industrial base and sufficient land bank for ready-built factory developers to penetrate, Van said.

However, the report said that no new supply of either industrial parks or ready-built factories was launched in the market in the quarter, she said.

Industrial properties in the Southern area remained significantly desirable for manufacturers to penetrate, although the pandemic still posed difficulties. Keeping the healthy demand momentum, both industrial land and ready-built factories recorded high occupancy rates at nearly 86 per cent and 82 per cent, increasing 0.60 per cent and 0.76 per cent compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, respectively. Of which, industrial land recorded transactions which have been negotiated since last year, whilst ready-built factories witnessed new leasing expansions of existing tenants rather than newcomers.

Industrial land remained the hottest sector for either newcomers or to meet the manufacturing expansion needs of existing investors, backed by Vietnam’s strong manufacturing fundamentals, Van said.

Therefore, most industrial park developers in Southern markets still maintained strong momentum to raise land prices reaching a new high at US$111 per sq.m per lease term, up 8.1 per cent year on year in the first quarter of this year. Whereas ready-built factory rents averaged $4.5 per sq.m per month across the region, increasing 3.1 per cent year on year, driven by the healthy demands of small and medium-sized enterprises as they expanded operations.

According to JLL Vietnam, in the first quarter, no new supply in industrial land and ready-built factories were introduced in the Northern market. The cumulative leasable land area in the market achieved roughly 9,500 ha, while the total supply of ready-built factories stood at approximately 1.8 million sq.m.

Bac Ninh and Hai Phong dominated the total supply in both sectors thanks to their strategic locations, strong footprints in the industrial market and improving business environment.

The third wave of COVID-19 swept the Northern area in late January has led to the postponement of new investments in the region, especially the lockdown in Hai Duong freezing most of the transactions in industrial parks in the first quarter.

Nevertheless, thanks to the strong influx of FDI in high-tech industries starting in the second half of 2020, the average occupancy rate of industrial parks recorded a healthy rate, reaching 75 per cent, whereas the occupancy rate of ready-built factories stood at 98 per cent in the quarter.

Given healthy demand, backed by Vietnam’s strong industrial fundamentals and combined with industrial park developers’ strong confidence in potential long-term investments, the land price continued its momentum to reach a new peak of $107 per sq.m per lease term in the first quarter, up 8.1 per cent year on year.

Meanwhile, ready-built factory rents also showed an increasing trend, at 5.8 per cent year on year, of which Bac Ninh recorded the strongest growth rate of nearly 9 per cent year on year fuelled by the launch of high-quality ready-built factories.

VNS