HCMC – The derivatives market remained gloomy in January, with the VN30 index futures contract trading volume and value slipping.

Though the VN30 index registered 1,125.07 points in January, up 11.3% against December 2022, the average trading value of the VN30 index futures slid nearly 34% over the previous month to around VND28.2 trillion per session.

The average trading volume of VN30 index futures contract products dropped to over 262,700 contracts per session, down 35.7% compared to December 2022.

According to the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the slump may result from the Vietnam Securities Depository’s (VSD) revision of the initial margin limit.

The VSD raised the cap for the initial margin for futures contracts of the VND30 blue-chip index to 17% from 13% in December 2022.

However, the market saw more traders, with derivative trading accounts edging up 1.24% month-on-month to nearly 1.2 million.