This Day In Market History: Vietnam Stock Exchange Opens

Each day, Benzinga takes a look back at a notable market-related moment that occurred on this date.

What Happened? On July 20, 2000, Vietnam opened its first stock exchange.

Where The Market Was: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the day at 10,843.87 and the S&P 500 traded at 1,495.57.

What Else Was Going On In The World? In 2000, Hillary Clinton was elected to the U.S. Senate in New York. “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” was the highest-grossing movie in the U.S. The average price of a new house was $134,150.

Vietnam Goes Public: Twenty-five years after the fall of Saigon, Vietnam inaugurated the Ho Chi Minh City Securities Trading Center on July 20, 2000. Trading officially began eight days later. At the time, the Vietnam exchange listed only two stocks: Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Joint Stock Corporation and Telecommunication Material Joint Stock Company.

Foreign investors were initially limited to just 20% ownership of Vietnamese equities, but that limit was lifted to 30% just three years later and to 49% in 2005. In August 2007, the exchange was updated and renamed the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange.

The exchange uses an automated order matching system with a capacity of just 300,000 orders per day. Daily stock price fluctuations are capped at 7% above or below the previous day’s closing price.