Covid-19 caused stocks to go red, real estate to freeze, even gold – which was considered a safe haven – was sold off.
Cash or savings
Sophisticated investors all say that `cash is king` during a recession, but leaving cash at home is a bad option.
Therefore, savings is a must-have option in the portfolio of investors at this stage, especially those who are not financially savvy.
Investors can refer to other channels to make more suitable choices and thoroughly implement the `don’t put all your eggs in one basket` approach.
Investment Director of the Joint Venture Company managing Vietcombank VCBF Securities Investment Fund Nguyen Thi Hang Nga said that gold is a safe haven asset and has high liquidity when the economy is unstable.
And Mr. Phan Dung Khanh, Director of Investment Consulting at Maybank KimEng Vietnam Securities Company, said that gold has had an upward trend since 2018, not until Covid-19 broke out.
In fact, large cash flows from central banks and financial institutions around the world are still pouring into gold, according to Mr. Khanh.
International gold price developments in the past 5 years.
`According to a survey by the Gold Council, the vast majority of central banks said that in the next 5 years they have no plans to sell gold. As long as they do not sell it, it is a factor supporting the price,` he said.
In addition, it is best for investors to invest in gold long-term for more than 1 year and avoid scalping because the world and domestic prices are very different when the market fluctuates strongly.
Banking and finance expert Nguyen Tri Hieu also shares the same opinion, saying that excluding two markets that are fluctuating too strongly, namely stocks and real estate, investors can consider depositing savings, gold or USD.
Mr. Nguyen Tri Hieu commented that gold is a profitable investment channel in the next half year.
USD
Mr. Phan Dung Khanh said that the USD index has tended to increase in price over the past decade and is twice as high as in 2010. He believes that one should not expect to benefit much from holding USD compared to saving in cash.
Customers trade USD at a bank.
Ms. Hang Nga, Investment Director of VCBF also said that in the long term, after the epidemic broke out and affected the US economy, government debt increased sharply and the US government would have to print more money, causing the USD to weaken.
With fluctuations from the epidemic, Vietnam’s economy will also be affected and it will be difficult to avoid the VND devaluing compared to the USD.
In general, USD is liquid, safe and the USD price has not risen too high, so investors can `keep a little USD` if it is a legal source.
Stock
The plunge in global stocks is an opportunity to start putting money into stocks to own a cheap portfolio according to VCBF’s Chief Investment Officer.
No one can predict where the bottom of the market will be, but in general it is still in a negative trend and according to Ms. Hang Nga, investors can gradually increase their investment amount in stages.
In difficult conditions, she believes that investors should choose large, leading companies to survive the crisis, or small companies with good cash flow and good dividends to compensate for the decline in market price.
However, Mr. Phan Dung Khanh believes that this is not the time to jump into the stock market.
Mr. Khanh said: `The epidemic is not the main reason why the financial market plummeted simultaneously.`
`The internal nature of the economy already has instability – on the other side of the slope. And the epidemic is just an additional blow that causes the whole economy to struggle. That is why the market is likely to follow W or
According to this expert, this is not the right time to jump into the market.
Real estate
Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh, Vice President of the Vietnam Real Estate Brokers Association, commented: `At this time, wise people should not spend money on real estate.`
However, if there is a really good opportunity, investors need to consider carefully if they want to get ahead, taking care to avoid projects with `hyped` information that causes prices to skyrocket.
In a report assessing the impact of Covid-19 on real estate investment activities in the next 6-12 months, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) Vietnam also commented that capital market flows into assets may slow down in the next 6-12 months.
