FTSE Russell to upgrade Vietnam to emerging market status in 2026

[Double exposure among of coins stacking , stock market graph chat and Vietnam flag for Vietnam country is new born economy and high business development growth from many investment concept.]
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Vietnam will be upgraded to emerging market status by FTSE Russell, a move that could unlock billions of dollars of foreign investment. The news sent its benchmark index to a record high on Wednesday.

The country's upgrade from "frontier" to "secondary emerging market" status will be effective on September 21, 2026, subject to an interim review in March 2026.

The review "is to determine whether sufficient progress has been made in enabling access to global brokers," FTSE Russell said. It added that the upgrade could add up to $6B in redirected foreign inflows to Vietnam.

"The official recognition and upgrade of Vietnam's securities market is clear evidence of the country's sound development path and its growing capacity to integrate deeply into the global financial system," said [https://www.lseg.com/en/media-centre/press-releases/ftse-russell/2025/ftse-russell-country-classification-september-2025] Nguyen Van Thang, Vietnam's finance minister.

The benchmark VN Index (VNINDEX [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/VNINDEX]) climbed as much as 2% on Wednesday, before paring gains to end 0.7% higher.

"Amid the market upgrade, we believe the VN Index's valuation offers 15%-20% upside in the next 12-18 months," analysts at VinaCapital, a Vietnamese investment management firm, projected.

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