Widening the daily trading band, shortening transaction time, improving transaction methods and changing listing conditions are the things the Hanoi Stock Exchange has promised to do in 2010 to help warm up the UpCom market.
UpCom market, known as the market of unlisted public companies, has been operational for six months. Thirty share items are available for transaction on the market, twice the number of share items available in the first days of its operation. The total value of shares registered for transaction is 2,950 billion dong, while the market capitalization value is 3,800 billion dong.
Nevertheless, UpCom has never been the first choice for securities investors to make investments and for businesses to list shares. The currently applied transaction method affects stock liquidity, and the regulation that investors cannot purchase and sell the same share items during the same trading sessions made the market less attractive. Besides, investors on UpCom market are not allowed to open more than one transaction account.
Deputy Director of Hanoi Stock Exchange Nguyen Hoang Lan has promised to make some adjustments after the 6-month trial operation to make the market more attractive.
Lan observed that the Hanoi Stock Exchange has made some proposals to the Ministry of Finance on changing requirements for listing shares on UpCom to create more favourable conditions for enterprises. From 2010, UpCom market will apply the real-time order matching transaction scheme, which serves investors better.
In the long term, the Hanoi Stock Exchange is considering new transaction methods and changing some regulations for UpCom in order to encourage more investors. Especially, the Hanoi Stock Exchange will widen the daily trading band and allow investors to purchase and sell the same share items within days.
The watchdog agency has released a document allowing 10 more businesses to list shares on UpCom.
The State Securities Commission has instructed public companies to list their shares either on the official bourses or UpCom. However, to date, only 40 percent of 1,000 public companies have plans to list.