The stock market had a noteworthy first trading week of May when VN-Index increased sharply and set a new peak above 1,910 points. Cash flow also improved significantly, but the level of differentiation is still relatively high. Throughout the trading week, active buying liquidity continuously turned to Blue chips stocks.
However, foreign investors are a major minus point when net selling strongly throughout the first trading sessions of May. Accumulated after 5 sessions, foreign investors net sold 4,158 billion VND across the market.
Considering each exchange separately, foreign investors net sold VND 4,351 billion on HoSE, net bought VND 256 billion on HNX and net sold VND 63 billion on UPCoM.
On the buying side, MSN led the list of net buyers with about 609 billion VND, followed by POW (593 billion VND) and codes GEX (250 billion VND), VIX (208 billion VND), VRE (194 billion VND), MWG (192.5 billion VND) and BID (147 billion VND).
In the opposite direction, FPT was the focus of the strongest net selling with about 1,707 billion VND, followed by ACB (1, 217 billion VND) and HPG (804 billion VND). Other stocks also faced significant capital withdrawal pressure such as KDH (384 billion VND), VCB (239.5 billion VND), KBC (214 billion VND), NVL (172 billion VND) and VHM (148 billion VND).
The question raised by investors is why foreign investors are still diligently net selling recently despite the bright prospects of upgrading the stock market? Many experts believe that upgrading does not mean that cash flow will enter immediately. With passive capital flows, only when officially included in the index basket, ETF funds allocate capital according to proportions, and this process takes place gradually.
For active capital flows, being ahead of schedule from the time the upgrade story stops at the expected level may be the reason why some funds are taking profits. Conversely, funds that have not previously invested will need market research time, usually taking 6 months to 1 year before disbursement.
SSI Research has just released the May 2026 stock market report, which states that Vietnam is highly likely to be included in MSCI's ranking monitoring list in the June 2026 review period. Currently, the market has met 10/18 criteria for MSCI's market access and is continuing to improve on all remaining criteria.
Also according to the SSI Research report, FTSE Russell has updated the list of stocks that meet the conditions based on groups not belonging to the basket of components. This list is now shortened to 23 codes, instead of 32 codes as before.
The official list will be announced before the FTSE GEIS index review in September 2026. Changes from this semi-annual review are expected to be announced from August 21, 2026.
Regarding capital flows, estimates from ETF funds based on the FTSE index set show that total cash flow that may enter the Vietnamese market reaches about 1.3 billion USD. Among them, large funds such as Vanguard Total International Stock ETF and Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF are forecast to contribute significantly.
By stock, VIC leads in capitalization and estimated cash flow with about 498 million USD, equivalent to about 14.6 trading days.Other codes such as HPG (115 million USD), VHM (99 million USD), FPT (69 million USD) and MSN (63 million USD) are also in the group attracting large capital flows.
