The stock market recorded quite surprising developments when a strong cash flow poured into securities companies, with a total value increasing by tens of thousands of billion VND in 3 months, up to 83 trillion VND by the end of 2023.

However, trading on the market is quite sluggish and many pillar stocks are increasing slowly, even many stocks are trending downward.

At the current price of VND43,000/share, Vingroup (VIC) shares of Chairman Pham Nhat Vuong have a market capitalization of about VND164,000 billion (about USD6.6 billion). At its peak, VIC's market capitalization was about VND480,000 billion (equivalent to about USD20 billion) in April 2021.

Hoa Phat Group (HPG) of Mr. Tran Dinh Long recently recorded a strong increase in stock price following positive signals from the steel industry and the impressive recovery of the company's business results.

According to a recently released report, Hoa Phat recorded a profit after tax of nearly VND 3,000 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, an increase of 48% compared to the previous quarter, thereby raising the total profit after tax for the whole year of 2023 to VND 6,800 billion. Although it did not reach the annual plan, this is a very positive number.

In the coming time, Hoa Phat's output will make a strong breakthrough when the steel giant promotes the Dung Quat 2 Project. When completed, the group's steel production capacity will reach more than 14 million tons of crude steel/year, bringing Hoa Phat into the Top 30 largest steel enterprises in the world from 2025.

Billionaire Tran Dinh Long's HPG shares have increased quite strongly in the past few months, from VND23,000/share in October 2023 to VND28,350/share as of now. This is also the highest price range in over a year.

Although still far from the peak of more than VND 43,000/share recorded in October 2021, HPG's breakthrough has also helped Mr. Tran Dinh Long's enterprise reach a capitalization of nearly VND 165,000 billion (equivalent to about USD 6.7 billion), thereby surpassing Vingroup of billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong.

This is the first time in history that Hoa Phat has surpassed Vingroup, and also the first time a manufacturing enterprise has surpassed a real estate giant in terms of capitalization on the Vietnamese stock market.

This scenario was unthinkable 2 years ago.

Previously, in mid-2021, when the stock market was bustling and the VN-Index surpassed the 1,400-point mark for the first time in the trading session on June 28, investors noted a strong breakthrough in VIC shares. Vingroup's capitalization at that time exceeded VND400 trillion.

In early July 2021, the stock market recorded 28 enterprises with capitalization of more than 1 billion USD, of which 4 enterprises had capitalization exceeding 10 billion USD. They are Vingroup, Vietcombank (VCB), Vinhomes (VHM) and Hoa Phat.

Vietnamese billionaire's assets stagnant, Mr. Tran Dinh Long has an additional 100 million USD

With the recent positive fluctuations of HPG shares, Mr. Tran Dinh Long's assets recorded an increase of 100 million USD compared to January 15, up to 2.3 billion USD according to Forbes' calculations. Billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong's assets are at 4.5 billion USD, lower than 4.6 billion USD at the beginning of the year.

As of January 23, according to Forbes, the assets of Mr. Nguyen Dang Quang - Chairman of Masan (MSN), were still below the threshold of 1 billion USD, specifically 996 million USD. Mr. Quang left the Forbes list from January 15.

Previously, on January 3, Mr. Nguyen Dang Quang returned to Forbes' list of USD billionaires with assets reaching 1 billion USD.

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Fluctuations in assets of Vietnamese billionaires (Chart: M. Ha)

Over the past few years, Mr. Nguyen Dang Quang has been in and out of the Forbes list, with his assets fluctuating between 1-1.9 billion USD. The peak recorded by Forbes was 1.9 billion USD in April 2022.

Besides Mr. Vuong and Mr. Quang, other USD billionaires also recorded a decline in assets.

Compared to January 3, the assets of VietJet Air (VJC) Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao decreased by 100 million USD, down to 2.3 billion USD on January 23. The assets of Thaco Chairman Tran Ba ​​Duong's family decreased by 100 million USD, down to 1.4 billion USD.

Techcombank (TCB) Chairman Ho Hung Anh recorded assets converted from TCB shares on January 23 at 1.4 billion USD.

In Mr. Vuong's case, contrary to Forbes, Bloomberg Billionaire Index recorded the assets of the richest businessman on the Vietnamese stock market at 8.06 billion USD, ranking 293rd in the world, down from 8.49 billion USD and 277th in the world recorded on January 15.

Mr. Vuong was ranked back in the top 500 USD billionaires by Bloomberg on January 3 after Bloomberg calculated the assets of Vietnam's richest billionaire, which were formed from the VinFast car company.

Mr. Vuong's assets have decreased by about 450 million USD since the beginning of the year, mainly due to VinFast shares falling from 7-8 USD/share to the current 6.1 USD/share.

By the end of 2023, the top 10 richest people in the stock market include 6 of the above businessmen. In addition, there are Mr. Bui Thanh Nhon (once on Forbes' list of USD billionaires), Ms. Vu Thi Hien (Mr. Long's wife), Mr. Truong Gia Binh (FPT), Mr. Nguyen Van Dat (PDR).

The assets of Vietnam's richest people are forecast to increase in 2024 when the stock market is expected to be positive.

Cash flow in investors’ securities accounts is currently at its highest level in nearly two years, which could help push up stock prices. Many forecasts suggest that the stock market could increase in price after the Tet holiday.

According to many experts, the negative stories have been absorbed in 2023. The VN-Index has many opportunities to surpass the peak of September 2023 (1,255 points) in February 2024, and even conquer the 1,300 mark in the first quarter of 2024.

Holding tens of thousands of billions waiting for the day when the stock market explodes. Cash flows worth billions of dollars - a record high in 2 years - are waiting in the accounts of stock investors, waiting for the market to signal to buy instead of withdrawing money to other investment channels. Will liquidity explode soon?