This figure has fallen further to VND904 trillion ($38.97 billion) by the end of Monday’s session, according to data released by Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), which manages UPCoM.

According to HNX, last December 13 new companies registered to trade shares on UPCoM, while two had left the exchange. By the end of the year, 872 tickers were registered on the bourse, with 41.8 billion registered shares and total par value at VND418 trillion ($18.02 billion).

In December, nearly 302 million shares were traded with total liquidity at over VND5.3 trillion ($228.5 million). Foreign investors traded over 18.4 million shares this month, acting as net buyers to the tune of about VND75 billion ($3.23 million).

For the whole 2019, UPCoM market traded 250 sessions, with total trading volume at 3.6 billion shares, or VND73.8 trillion ($3.18 billion). On average, each session saw over 14.7 million shares changing hands for VND295 billion ($12.72 million).

UPCoM is effectively a mezzanine exchange, set up to encourage unlisted public firms to participate in the securities market, with a view that they may later transfer onto the main HNX or Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) markets.

According to data published by both exchanges at the end of Monday’s session, HNX, home to mid-and small caps, had a market cap of about VND98 trillion ($4.22 billion), while HoSE, home to large caps, had a market cap of VND2.93 quadrillion ($126.3 billion), or three times that of UPCoM.