What were the best investment channels in 2016?
Stocks, which were deemed risky and volatile assets, paid the highest returns last year. The benchmark VN-Index hit the eight-year peak at 692.17 points on September 29. Investors could earn a 34.9 percent profit when investing in the VN-Index and nearly 26 percent rate of return with investments in VN-30 during the peak period.
The stock market entered a downward correction from October but the VN-Index still ended the year up 14.8 percent over December 31, 2015, a good performance compared to an 8.7 percent growth in 2015. However, actual earnings depended on the portfolios of investors.
Gold: 10.6 percent
Domestic gold prices jumped to a four-year high in July at VND39.8 million (US$1,786) per tael, paying the gold investors a 17 percent rate of returns at this time. Investors could buy a tael of gold for VND33.16 million on April 6 and sell it at VND38.8 million on July 6.
Gold prices slowed down its pace from early October and kept abreast with world gold prices. In the last months of 2016, domestic gold prices still increased despite a steep fall in the global market, partly due to the unfounded rumours of demonetisation.
On December 31, 2016, SJC gold was quoted at VND36.18 million per tael and VND36.28 million per tael for buying and selling, respectively, with equivalent rises of 10.9 percent and 10.6 percent, respectively.
Savings: 6.5 percent
The VND30 trillion credit package to support low-income groups to buy social housing stopped disbursement on December 31, 2016. Circular No 06/2016/TT-NHNN eased some safety ratios for banks to channel capital in the real estate sector. However, Circular No 19/2016/TT-BXD tightened re-sale procedures which affected short-term investors.
Prices of real estate projects differed depending on locations and house types. According to CBRE, the townhouses and villas project in District 2 in HCM City could reward investors a profit of 10 percent in the third quarter