Thread: Latest news on the Dong!

Vietnam Jan-Apr industrial output up 16.7% on year
Vietnam estimated its industrial output in the first four months of this year would jump 16.7 percent to VND176.88 trillion ($11 billion) against the same period of 2006, the statistics office said Wednesday.
Growth in the January-April period was driven by a 31 percent jump in steel production and 35.8 percent rise in tiles production, the statistics office figures showed.

Vietnamese industrial output (percentage change from a year earlier):

Vietnam latest news - Thanh Nien Daily

Sacombank CD issue to raise dollar deposits

The Ho Chi Minh bourse-listed Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank, or Sacombank, has issued certificates of deposit (CDs) in US dollars for both clients and investors.
The CDs come with a minimum face value of ranging from $200 to $100,000 [CDs purchase by cash or bank account] and carry a coupon rate of 4.6 – 4.8 percent; 4.75 – 4.95 percent; and 4.95 – 5.15 percent for four month, eight month and eleven month terms respectively.

The issuance has been opened from April 20 to June 20.

The bank is set to make a 1:2 rights issue this year to raise VND1.45 trillion (US$90 million), increasing its chartered capital to VND3.55 trillion ($221 million).

Some three million shares will also be offered to key executives at VND15,000.

Sacombank has projected pre-tax profit of VND845 billion ($52.6 million) this year, up 55 percent from last year.

Its outstanding loans at the end of last year were 73 percent higher year-on-year at VND14.54 trillion ($905 million). Deposits increased 75 percent to VND21.52 trillion ($1.3 billion).

Sacombank shares started trading on July 12, 2006 in the HCMC Securities Trading Center, making the lender the country's largest listed company at the time, boosting Vietnam's stock market value then by 53 percent.

The bank has three strategic foreign shareholders, the World Bank's International Finance Corp., Dragon Capital and ANZ Bank, which altogether held 26.3 percent of stake.

Another source predicted the central bank might lift the cap on foreign investors’ holdings in the bank.

Vietnam latest news - Thanh Nien Daily

PM asks for acceleration of gas-fed projects

PM Nguyen Tan Dung made the recommendation while visiting the construction site of the Nhon Trach power plant I in southern Dong Nai province near Ho Chi Minh city Tuesday.

The government leader urged the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group to increase prospecting of oil fields both inside and outside the country and ensure a sufficient gas supply for the nation's gas-fed works, including the Phu My fertilizer and Nhon Trach power plants.

He asked the group to continue to invest in building Nhon Trach power plant II, which is expected to cost US$650 million and have a capacity of 750MW.

Last month PetroVietnam started work on the 450-MW Nhon Trach plant I. The $420-million plant is scheduled to be completed within the next 12 months.

Vietnam latest news - Thanh Nien Daily

maybe already posted but just sent to me...
Forex Blog: Vietnamese Dong Attracts International Attention

April 24, 2007
Vietnamese Dong Attracts International Attention
Despite a surging economy, Vietnam’s currency, the Dong, has managed to escape the attention of international traders and investors. Last year, Vietnam registered the strongest economic growth in Southeast Asia, at 7.7%, and is projected to grow by over 8% this year. However, due to a devaluation program maintained by the government to support the Vietnamese export sector, the Dong has remained low. In addition, the government does not allow speculators to buy Vietnamese currency unless it is being used for a specific purpose, typically investment. As a result, the market for currency derivatives is beginning to take-off in Vietnam, as speculators seek a means of capturing some of the strength in Vietnam’s economy that is sure to lift its currency. The International Herald Tribune reports:

Vietnam this year ended a decade-long policy of “managed devaluation” that caused the dong to weaken 30 percent. The central bank will “keep the dong stable, in a flexible manner, so that it can help our exports,” said one analyst.

Read More: Currency is Vietnam's new lure

April 24, 2007 in Exotic Currencies, Investing & Trading | Permalink

VCurrency is Vietnam's new lure


Vietnam's currency is starting to capture the attention of derivatives traders as Southeast Asia's fastest-growing economy accelerates, the newswire Bloomberg reported.
DBS Group Holdings and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group have begun offshore trading in contracts tied to the future value of the currency, the dong. The $50 million of Vietnamese contracts that trade monthly may double in a year, Standard Chartered estimates.

More than $1 billion of Chinese yuan forwards change hands daily in an overseas market that did not exist 15 years ago, HSBC Holdings said.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung loosened currency controls this year and announced plans to increase sales of state-owned assets. The new currency market gives investors more opportunities to bet on an economy that expanded at a 7.7 percent annual rate in the first quarter and may grow 8.3 percent this year, according to the Asian Development Bank.

"You can't imagine the amount of money going into Vietnam," said Peter Soh, head of foreign exchange in Singapore at DBS, Southeast Asia's biggest bank. "Everyone thinks Vietnam will follow China's path. The dong must strengthen."

Vietnam's benchmark stock index is up 29 percent so far in 2007, after gaining 145 percent in 2006, the world's best performance. The economy is the fastest among the six biggest in Southeast Asia.

Investors need derivatives to trade the currency because the government only allows them to buy dong for specific purposes, such as investing in stocks or building factories. The contracts are settled in dollars.

"It's very positive," and is in line with government goals of having the currency trade overseas, State Bank of Vietnam's deputy governor, Phung Khac Ke, said in an interview in Hanoi. "It shows international investors are more and more interested in Vietnam."

The central bank's support coincides with Dung's plans to open the economy.

Dung, 57, became prime minister in June and last week approved a $1 billion sale of government bonds, the largest ever. The Communist Party this year told three of the four biggest state banks to prepare for initial public offerings.

Vietnam this year ended a decade-long policy of "managed devaluation" that caused the dong to weaken 30 percent. The currency gained 0.7 percent between Nov. 22 and Feb. 21. It has since fallen 0.4 percent to 16,041.05 per dollar as regulators curbed borrowing for stock market investment.

Three-month, nondeliverable forward contracts trade at 16,111 to the dollar, data compiled by Bloomberg found. The prices take into account higher interest rates in Vietnam as well as the expectations among traders for dong movements.

The central bank will "keep the dong stable, in a flexible manner, so that it can help our exports," Ke said.

Traders may be "turned off" by the central bank's support for gradual depreciation, said Sean Callow, a senior currency strategist in Singapore at the Sydney-based Westpac Banking. State controls may limit swings in the currency and opportunities to profit, he said.

Investors are still "testing the water" in Vietnam, said Amy Auster, head of international economics at the Melbourne-based ANZ Bank, which owns stakes in two Vietnamese banks.

Derivatives are financial instruments derived from stocks, bonds, loans, currencies and commodities, or linked to specific events like changes in the weather or interest rates.

Trading in the futures may increase once banks introduce a standardized contract for the dong by early June, DBS said in an e-mail. Between 15 and 20 banks in Singapore and five brokers may be interested in the market, DBS said. The central bank doubled the daily limit on dong moves against the dollar to 0.5 percent this year.

"Vietnam is the next market in Asia to look at," said Greg Clinton, global head of interest rate derivatives in Singapore at Standard Chartered, a London-based bank that makes two-thirds of its profit in Asia. "It's booming but it has currency restrictions, and that gives rise to a nondeliverable market."

Forwards are agreements to buy assets at a later specified date. A nondeliverable forward is typically settled in dollars and involves no physical exchange of other currencies.

Source: Bloomberg

Vietnam latest news - Thanh Nien Daily

the government does not allow speculators to buy Vietnamese currency unless it is being used for a specific purpose, typically investment.

WHAT does this mean, exactly??!!!

Originally Posted by cooldolphins

WHAT does this mean, exactly??!!!

Wish that I had an answer for you dolphin....but it sounds to me that I don't have nearly enough Dong!!!.....but who does??

Now that's hot mamma!

Originally Posted by goldraker

Now that's hot mamma!

I think it goes...."ONE HOT MAMMA"...anyway that's the way I sing it!!!

Originally Posted by cooldolphins

WHAT does this mean, exactly??!!!

kind of an oxymoronic type of statement isnt it?? i mean speculators cant buy currency unless its for investment. isnt that what speculators buy currency for?? or is that only if you are holding onto it but you cant just buy up a bunch and try to cash out right away to make money?