(Recasts to add details, analyst comments)
By Ho Binh Minh
HANOI, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Vietnam will ease restrictions on
bank loans to local stock market investors and allow foreigners
to use dollars to buy Vietnamese shares, the central bank and
state media said, in a move aimed at boosting the young market.
The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange .VNI closed up 3.9 percent
at 843.10 points on the news, viewed by analysts as positive
for stock market investments in the Communist-run Southeast
Asian country which is seeking to develop its capital markets.
“This will definitely be positive for the stock market,”
Prakriti Sofat, Asian Economics analyst at HSBC in Singapore
said. “There is a lot of foreign money waiting on the
sidelines.”
Vietnam would allow offshore investors to use foreign
currencies to pay for shares at auctions by Vietnamese firms
instead of the domestic dong currency, Finance Minister Vu Van
Ninh was quoted by the official Vietnam News Agency as saying.
