Margin debt across the market hits a record high as several securities firms lend up to USD 1 billion

According to statistics, by the end of Q1, total lending for margins (including margin loans and funds advanced for selling) at Vietnamese securities firms was estimated at about 415,000 billion dong, up about 9,000 billion from the end of 2025 and the highest level on record. Of that, margin lending stood at about 405,000 billion dong, up 13,000 billion after the first quarter and also the highest in the history of the Vietnamese stock market. As of the end of Q1, the entire market had 15 brokerage houses with lending balances above 10,000 billion dong, among which five names—TCBS, SSI, VPBankS, VPS, and HSC—had lending balances above USD 1 billion. TCBS remained the brokerage with the largest lending balance in the sector, at nearly 45,000 billion dong, up slightly from the start of the year. Lending activity shows clear differentiation after the first quarter; for some brokers, lending balances have set new records, including TCBS, VPBankS, VPS, ACBS, Vietcap, KIS, LPBankS, SHS... Most of these brokers saw lending balances rise by more than a thousand billion compared with year-end. Notably, VPS saw its lending balance rise by nearly 8,000 billion dong in Q1, helping VPS surpass HSC to become the fourth-largest broker by lending activity on the market. On the other hand, some brokers showed signs of slowing lending activity. Among them, SSI, VNDirect, VIX still recorded significant declines in lending compared with year-end. The shrinking lending scale in Q1 meant SSI was approached by VPBankS, as the latter had six consecutive quarters of strong loan growth. From this, it appears that market-wide lending growth slowed somewhat, reflecting more cautious use of leverage by investors in Q1. The market started 2026 strongly — the VN-Index briefly exceeded 1,900 points — but then declined sharply in March due to concerns over tensions in the Middle East. It is possible many investors reduced exposure or faced margin calls during this period. Furthermore, the interest-rate environment has not been favorable for lending. Since late last year, funding and lending rates have risen again due to liquidity shortages in the banking system. The margin loan rate at brokerages has risen to about 13–14% per year. This has somewhat constrained demand for leverage among investors, especially in a context of volatile markets. In a recent report, MBS pointed out several headwinds that have kept large inflows from entering the market. First, selling pressure from abroad remains quite strong; four consecutive weeks of market gains have been followed by four straight weeks of foreign net selling, totaling about 11 trillion dong. Second, market breadth shows investor portfolios lagging behind the index gains. Statistics show the VN-Index crossing the 1,800-point threshold, approaching 1,850, but only about one-third of stocks trade above the 200-day moving average. Third, profitability is concentrated in a few individual stock groups, which has caused overall market liquidity during the four-week uptrend to total 26,800 billion dong, lower than the three-week average of 37,500 billion and also lower than the last week before the late-March low (28,600 billion). Overall, Vietnam's stock market has stabilized and aligned with global trends as concerns over the Middle East ease. FTSE has confirmed that Vietnam will be upgraded to the secondary emerging market in September this year. This is expected to boost investor sentiment and thereby attract fresh capital to the market, along with demand for leverage in the period ahead.