Foreign investors net sold more than VND 24,000 billion on HoSE in October 2026. FireAnt puts the figure at VND 24,024 billion, or about USD 930 million, the largest monthly net sale so far this year.FireAnt On its face, that reads like an even, market-wide withdrawal. Broken down, it is two different things: one very large ownership transfer in a single stock, and scattered selling across large-cap names. The second part is smaller, but it is still far bigger than last month's, and it is the part worth examining.
The month at a glance
According to HoSE data cited by FireAnt, foreign investors bought nearly VND 38,000 billion in October, the lowest monthly figure this year, and sold almost VND 62,000 billion. Buying shrank while selling grew, so the gap between the two widened.FireAnt
Selling pressure showed up through most of the month. Foreign investors were net sellers for 20 straight sessions from September 23 to October 20, the longest run in about two years. They were net buyers only on October 21 and 22, then returned to net selling in the final sessions.FireAnt
September offers a yardstick. VnEconomy reported that foreign investors net sold just over VND 4,800 billion on HoSE that month, already the ninth straight month of net selling this year.VnEconomy October was therefore about five times September.
Even so, the VN-Index moved only from 1,768.62 at the end of September to 1,741.62 on October 30, a decline of roughly 1.5%. Average matched trading value on HoSE also slipped almost 5%, to about VND 15,600 billion per session.FireAnt Domestic money absorbed most of what foreign investors sold, even as overall liquidity thinned.
Layer one: a single Masan Consumer transaction
Masan Consumer (MCH) topped the net-sold list at about VND 9,601 billion, roughly 40% of the market-wide figure. Most of it came on October 9, when MCH shares changed hands in a negotiated (put-through) transaction at VND 150,000 per share. FireAnt reports that the seller side included foreign investors and the buyer was domestic.FireAnt
A negotiated trade differs from order-book selling: the two parties agree on price and volume and then report it to the exchange. It never passes through the order book, so it does not push directly on the quoted price that shareholders see on the board. A large net sale from a negotiated deal tells you ownership moved from one group of investors to another. It does not tell you how many people are dumping shares on the market. For someone holding MCH, the nearly VND 10,000 billion of October net selling is better read as a change of owner than as a signal of daily supply waiting to be sold.
Layer two: the scattered selling that remains
Excluding MCH entirely, foreign investors still net sold about VND 14,400 billion on HoSE in October.FireAnt That is roughly three times the whole of September. This is real selling pressure, and it was not spread evenly.
VnExpress reports that HDBank, PNJ, FPT and ACB ranked right behind MCH, each net sold by more than VND 1,000 billion.VnExpress The specific figures from FireAnt:
- HDBank (HDB): about VND 3,388 billion, close to 131 million shares. By volume, it was the most net-sold stock of the month.Người Quan Sát
- PNJ: about VND 2,135 billion, over 99 million shares.
- FPT: about VND 1,876 billion, around 33 million shares.
- ACB: about VND 1,445 billion, more than 70 million shares.
Together these four account for about VND 8,844 billion, more than six-tenths of the VND 14,400 billion left after MCH. Including MCH, the five stocks make up about VND 18,445 billion, nearly 77% of total HoSE net selling, with roughly VND 5,600 billion spread across other names.FireAnt
For holders of HDB, PNJ, FPT or ACB, that means October's foreign supply landed on exactly the stocks they own. The available data does not separate how much of it went through the order book versus negotiated trades, so it should not be attributed entirely to selling on the board.
Layer three: foreign investors still bought some stocks
The other side of the ledger shows foreign money being selective. On HoSE they net bought about VND 647 billion of MSN, VND 274 billion of HPG, VND 231 billion of SHB, VND 229 billion of TCB and VND 227 billion of DCM.FireAnt These purchases are far smaller than the selling, but they show that within the same banking group, some stocks were net sold by thousands of billions of dong while others were still being added.
On UPCoM, Masan High-Tech Materials (MSR) was net bought by about VND 3,223 billion. Người Quan Sát says the trade is linked to a deal with a US counterparty.Người Quan Sát Thanks to that purchase, net selling across all three exchanges (HoSE, HNX and UPCoM) came to about VND 20,844 billion, below the HoSE-only figure.FireAnt
Notably, the largest transaction in each direction during the month involved Masan Group stocks. Those two items pushed the headline number up and down sharply, so reading the true selling pressure means looking at what remains once they are set aside.
Why foreign investors kept selling after the upgrade
FTSE Russell upgraded Vietnam to secondary emerging market status, effective September 21, 2026. October was the first full month after that date, and also the biggest month of net selling this year.FireAnt
The explanations cited in the press do not point to a single cause. VnExpress says global capital is leaving emerging markets for technology stocks in the US, Japan and China, while global interest rates remain high. Passive funds deployed about USD 220 million ahead of the upgrade's effective date, and active funds took profits after months of buying in anticipation.VnExpress
These factors can coexist. The VND 14,400 billion of scattered selling landed on liquid large caps, which fits how active funds trim positions. Still, the available data cannot separate what belongs to active funds from what reflects global flows in general, so no single factor can be called dominant.
Year to date and how much selling is left
According to HoSE data cited by FireAnt and VnExpress, foreign investors have net sold more than VND 122,000 billion on HoSE over ten months, about USD 4.7 billion. That is only around VND 3,000 billion below the VND 125,000 billion recorded for all of 2025.FireAnt Other compilers show slightly different pairs of figures because their scope differs, but all point the same way: 2026 is closing in on last year's net selling.
After years of net selling, foreign investors now hold only about 12.5% of listed shares on HoSE.VnExpress VietinBank Securities (VBSE) calculates that since April 2023 they have net sold VND 365.2 trillion on HoSE. In its base case, VBSE estimates about VND 51.5 trillion more net selling, with the cycle possibly ending by the end of Q1 2027.Tin nhanh chứng khoán
VBSE also flags a point that matters directly to holders of bank stocks: TCB, MBB and HDB still carry sizable foreign ownership and have not cut their weightings in this cycle, so they could become the next place selling concentrates if portfolio restructuring continues.Tin nhanh chứng khoán That is one brokerage's forecast, not an event that has happened.
Signals to watch
The brokerages cited in the press see no immediate reversal. The analysis team at Tien Phong Securities (TPS) says the strongest wave of withdrawals may be behind us, but selling is unlikely to end soon while US government bond yields stay high and the dollar is strong. Kafi Securities says foreign investors are unlikely to turn net buyers in Q4 and that selling will differ by stock group.VnExpress
On the demand side, there is a defined calendar. Under FTSE Russell's schedule, the first tranche in September 2026 brought in only 10% of the expected weighting. Three more follow in March, June and September 2027, at 20%, 35% and 35%.FireAnt Added weighting does not guarantee money will actually flow in, since the real amount depends on funds' assets under management and market conditions at the time.
The conclusion: foreign selling pressure in October was real even after setting aside the MCH transaction, and it concentrated in banks, jewelry retail and technology. The first signal to watch is HoSE's November data once large negotiated blocks are stripped out. If the scattered selling in large caps shrinks toward September's level of about VND 4,800 billion, October was the peak of this selling wave. If it stays near VND 14,400 billion, foreign supply will keep weighing on the same stocks that were sold hardest, until FTSE's next weighting tranche in March 2027.