Nearly 50 companies are expected to float their shares
on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange and Hanoi Securities Trading Center
by the end of this year.


State oil group PetroVietnam’s financial arm
PetroVietnam Finance Corp. said on its website it would list 500
million shares on the HCMC stock market on November 3.


PVFC will become the biggest stock in terms of listed volume, going past Sacombank, which has nearly 440 million shares.


Earlier this month the Ho Chi MinhStock Exchange
(HOSE) approved in principle Phu Nhuan Jewelry Joint Stock Company’s
application for listing 30 million shares.


Cao Tien Vi, chairman of Saigon Paper Corporation, said his company is preparing to file a listing application with the HOSE.


He said his company had planned to list in HCMC at the
beginning of this year, but decided to delay the plan after the market
crashed.


But Vi said the company could not delay its listing any longer because of its commitment to shareholders.


Some investors fear, justifiably, that the mass listing could depress the stock market even further.


Truong Duy Khiem, an executive at ACB Securities
Company, said since investors’ sentiment is now down, too many new
shares would send the supply skyrocketing and make it difficult for
demand to catch up.


But he added that since the Vietnamese stock market is
still so small in terms of scale, more listings would help enlarge the
market, enhance its liquidity, and attract more foreign investors.