The closing at 959.31 points, a 1.18 percent fall, was marked by blue chip stocks leading the plunge. On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, 221 stocks lost and 114 gained.

The liquidity of order-matched transactions was VND3.58 trillion ($154.7 million), up sharply from VND2.77 trillion ($119.7 million) in Friday’s session.

The VN-30, which represents Vietnam’s 30 biggest market cap stocks, lost 1.39 percent, with eight losing at least 1 percent.

VNM shares of dairy giant Vinamilk led the session’s losses with a drop of 3.2 percent, followed by GAS of state-owned energy firm PetroVietnam Gas, which shed 2.5 percent.

BVH shares of insurance giant Bao Viet, FPT of IT giant FPT, and VCB of Vietcombank, one of Vietnam’s three biggest state-owned lenders by assets, all fell 1.8 percent.

BID of BIDV and CTG of VietinBank, the other two major state-owned banks, lost 1.1 percent and 0.65 percent respectively. Five other stocks belonging to mid-sized lenders on the VN30 all lost this session.

In the green were SAB shares of Vietnam’s biggest brewer Sabeco, which gained 3 percent, followed by JVC of budget carrier VietJet Air, up 1.2 percent.

ROS of construction corporation FLC Faros and HPG of steelmaking giant Hoa Phat Group were the only other stocks which gained, at 0.2 and 0.1 percent respectively.

Foreign investors were net buyers, pouring in VND64.79 billion ($2.8 million), focused mainly on HPG shares of Hoa Phat Group, VHM of real estate developer Vinhomes and VRE of retail corporation Vincom Retail.

The HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, Vietnam’s second main bourse for small and mid-cap stocks, rose 1.56 percent, and the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Public Companies Market fell 0.25 percent.

The Asian stock market rose after data released over the weekend showed factory activity in China rising more than expected. The official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) was at 50.2 in November, up from 49.3 in October, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics.

The Shanghai Composite rose 0.13 percent, the Shenzen Component gained 0.24, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng also rose 0.41 percent.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 1.01 percent, while South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.19 percent.