The Vietnam Fund lost −0.1% in June with a NAV of USD 1,800.40, bringing the return since inception to +80.0%. This represents an annualised return of +13.9% p.a. The Ho Chi Minh City VN Index in USD lost −1.6%, while the Hanoi VH Index lost −8.1% (in USD terms). The broad diversification of the fund’s portfolio resulted in a low annualized volatility of 8.78%, a high Sharpe ratio of 1.51, and a low correlation of the fund versus the MSCI World Index USD of 0.25, all based on monthly observations.
For another month the heaviest weighted stock in the VN-Index, VinGroup, with a weighting of around 12%, had a +1.5% positive contribution to the benchmark index in HCMC, lowering the overall negative index performance. Though, with the rest of the market suffering for the third month in a row, the indices lost −1.1% in HCMC and −7.6% in Hanoi. Volatility was also felt in most parts of the mid-cap segment which gained 7% at the beginning of the month but ended it down with a loss of -4%. We saw selected interest in our portfolio which resulted in a small gain of +0.3% in local currency while the Vietnamese Dong was weaker by −0.6%.