Financial statements for the second quarter of 2026 of some securities companies (CTCK) are showing that margin debt is still increasing despite the unfavorable market context. At TCBS Securities Company, the value of loans at the end of the second quarter of 2026 reached 51.522 billion VND, an increase of more than 15% compared to the previous quarter.
Meanwhile, VPBankS Securities Company also recorded a margin balance increase of 5.2% compared to the previous quarter to 38,177 billion VND. The company continuously expanded its margin market share compared to the entire industry, from about 2% at the end of 2022 to 8.6% at the end of the first quarter of 2026. It is expected that by the end of this year, VPBankS's outstanding balance will reach about 50,000 billion VND.
Other large securities companies also continue to expand lending despite the market context of just experiencing a quarter of liquidity decline and increasingly clear differentiation. This shows that the demand for leverage of an investment group is still high, despite strong market fluctuations.
According to statistics, the outstanding margin balance of the whole industry at the end of the first quarter of 2026 reached about 418.725 billion VND, an increase of 50.2% compared to the same period last year and the highest level in the history of the Vietnamese stock market. Meanwhile, the margin lending interest rate is up to 14%/year and the caution of large cash flow in the first quarter of 2026.
The margin balance structure also shows a noteworthy level of concentration. Accordingly, the 10 securities companies with the largest margin balance in the first quarter of 2026 are managing more than 254 trillion VND, accounting for more than 61% of the industry's total market share.
One indicator to monitor is the ratio of margin balance against equity of securities companies. Statistics show that the ratio of margin balance/equity of the whole industry is 99.7%, but some companies have approached the maximum allowed level of 200%. The ratio of margin balance against market capitalization adjusted according to free transfer reached about 14.1% at the end of March 2026, higher than 12.8% at the end of 2025. These figures show that the loan space is not evenly distributed.
When margin scale increases rapidly and reaches a record level, the story no longer stops at liquidity. Financial leverage always has two sides. When the market is favorable, margin amplifies profits. But when the market fluctuates strongly, margin can also amplify selling pressure. It is noteworthy that the margin peak period currently takes place in the context that cash flow has not spread evenly, liquidity has not really exploded commensurately and the market index is greatly affected by some large-cap stock groups.
The Vietnamese stock market is in a more unpredictable period than ever. In recent trading sessions alone, VN-Index has fluctuated in the range from more than 20 points to nearly 50 points at times. In some sessions, the index decreased by nearly 50 points and then narrowed downward momentum when closing.
The fact that the index continuously fluctuates with a large amplitude in one session makes the market likened by many investors to a "super-speed roller coaster". And followed by a sell-off effect. In July, local sell-offs appeared in many securities companies.
The obvious lesson is the free fall after the April 2025 tariff shock and the series of sharp declines in March 2026 associated with instability in the Middle East. With a margin debt scale of hundreds of trillions of VND across the market at this time, the pressure from leverage is not small.
