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The event featured senior leaders from the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, Coteccons, FPT Retail, HDBank, PNJ, Eximbank, and VietJet. His Excellency Mr Tran Ngoc An, Vietnam’s Ambassador to the UK, opened trading on the London Stock Exchange along with Don Lam, CEO of VinaCapital and others.

By most accounts, 2017 has been a very positive year for Vietnam’s economic development. GDP growth is expected to come in at or around 6.7%, driven by strong activity in the manufacturing and services sector, as well as robust retail sales growth, among other factors. Meanwhile, the stock market is up over 40%, making it one of the top performers in the world. Is this sort of growth sustainable? And where are the opportunities and risks in the market in 2018?

Andy Ho, VinaCapital’s CIO, provides his views on the recent sale of Sabeco and the capital markets’ growth in 2017.

The US Federal Reserve hiked policy interest rates by 25bps to 1.5%, which was widely expected, and the Fed also lifted its 2018 US GDP growth forecast to 2.5%.

Vietnam’s economy will grow by 6.5% or more in 2017, but GDP growth would be higher were it not for a decline in oil production, which contributes about 5% of GDP. We expect Vietnam’s oil production will beat forecasts in 2018 on the back of an expected rise in oil prices, boosting not just GDP but also possibly the stock market, as the oil and gas sector’s earnings could be lifted by 15%.