The State Securities Commission of Vietnam (SSC), the country's stock market watchdog, has instructed the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) to process transactions of stocks from the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) to ease the latter’s overload issue.

Investors at a securities center in Hanoi. Photo: Viet Dung

The move came after the Ministry of Finance (MoF) gave the nod for temporarily moving stocks listed on the HOSE, home to the majority of large-caps, to the HNX, which is mainly responsible for government bond transactions and management of the derivatives market.

Under the decision, public firms that want to move their stocks to HNX would need to submit in writing of such request along with a resolution of the Board of Directors or from the annual general shareholder to both the HNX and HOSE.

The SSC expected the HNX to process stocks moving from HOSE without applying a procedure for new listing of shares, while the mechanisms of transaction, supervision and reporting and information declaration should be the same as those already on the HNX.

“Both two stock exchanges should cooperate in monitoring transactions of these stocks to ensure continuity in state administration in this regard,” noted the SSC.

However, an option to move to the HNX would not apply for stocks under the VN30 Index, comprised of the 30 largest stocks on the HOSE.

Once completed, both HOSE and HNX are tasked with publishing related information to enterprises and investors.

The new change is set to take effect from March 3, 2021, under SSC’s instruction once a technological solution could fully solve the current overload issue on HOSE.

The frequent overload of orders forcing the stock exchange to halt market trading is causing frustration among investors.

Both before and after the Tet holiday, the overload occurred multiple times on HOSE whenever liquidity in a trading session hit around VND14-17 trillion (US$608-738 million).

The SSC attributed the overload issue on the HOSE to the transaction processing capacity of the stock exchange that limits the number of transactions per day, while a recent surge of orders has exceeded the expectation of the market.