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Vietnam Stock Market
The other major market of note is the over-the-counter Hanoi stock market. The official name for the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange in the beginning was Ho Chi Minh City Securities Trading Center. Trading on the stock market was officially started on July 28, 2000 with only two companies listed at first. These two companies were the Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Joint Stock Corporation (‘REE’) and Saigon Cable and Telecommunication Material Joint Stock Company (‘SACOM’). Since July 2003, the foreign ownership limit for equities has been up to 30% and the government completely removed foreign ownership limit of a particular issuer’s bonds. However, foreigners participating on the stock market must register through a custodian licensed to hold securities on behalf of foreigners. Once registered, a securities transaction code is issued to the foreign investor that will permit securities trading. As of 2006, there were thirteen licensed securities companies. Nine of these have been licensed to conduct a full range of securities services including underwriting, brokerage, custody, research, portfolio management and trading. The market has developed quite rapidly, as at the end of the year 2006, the total market capitalization of both the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange and the Hanoi Securities Trading Center was at USD 14 billion, which translated at the time to about 22.7% in comparison to the GDP of the whole country of Vietnam. Since 2007, the official name of the exchange has been Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE).
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