Hanoi (VNA) - The VN-Index, Vietnam’sbenchmark stock index, grew 19.33 percent in the first three months of thisyear, becoming the best-performing market in the world, followed by Egypt with15.52 percent growth and Brazil with 11.73 percent.

The index ended March 31 at 1,174.46, up astaggering 200 points from the beginning of the year, which was the biggestgain worldwide.

Vietnam’s stock market has been upbeat since thesecond half of last year but the upward momentum slowed down after March 23when the index surpassed its March 2007 peak. Rising volatility on the globalmarkets and fears of a trade war between the two biggest economies, namely theUS and China, dampened investor confidence.

However, the local market still ended the firstquarter strong, with optimistic medium and long-term forecasts put forward bysecurities companies, experts and investors.

The VN-Index, a capitalisation-weighted index ofall the companies listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, closed at a 10-yearhigh of 984.24 on the last working day of 2017, earning Vietnam the nicknameAsia’s “frontier market” with a 47 percent gain for the year.

The gains of the VN-Index may extend, with theindex forecast to reach 1,210 by the end of 2018, according to a survey of 10strategists conducted by Bloomberg.

Besides the index’s growth, liquidity has alsoimproved significantly, as its trading value soared more than 60 percent from2006 to 5 trillion VND (220 million USD) daily in 2017, and the figure hasrocketed to 9.6 trillion VND (422.9 million USD) in early 2018.

The breakthrough in Vietnam’s stock market ismainly attributed to rosy macro-economic fundamentals, positive businessresults among listed companies and high investor expectations for Statedivestment plans among many large State corporations.

According to the General Statistics Office, GDPgrowth recorded in the first quarter of the year was seen at 7.38 percent, thebest first-quarter performance in the last 10 years, backed by strong growth inagriculture, industrial and construction sectors.

Lending interest rates also remained stable,supporting businesses as well as stimulating capital flow into the stock market.

Another major push was caused by the stronginflows of foreign capital. Foreign traders were responsible for net buyingvalues of nearly 10 trillion VND (440.5 million USD) in the first quarter, aftertotal net purchases of 28 trillion VND (1.23 billion USD) in Vietnam’s stockmarket in 2017.-VNA