294 stocks gained and 95 lost on HoSE, Vietnam’s main bourse, on which the VN-Index is based. Total trading volume changed little over the previous session, at VND4.45 trillion ($192.94 million), slightly below last month’s average of VND4.57 trillion per session.

Indices of Vietnam’s two smaller bourses, the HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, and the UPCoM-Index for stocks on the Unlisted Public Companies Market, also added 0.66 percent and 0.14 percent, respectively.

According to brokerage Bao Viet Securities, announcements by some countries on progress in producing a vaccine for the novel coronavirus have supported market sentiment in the short-term.

But it warned that this was a particularly volatile period for HoSE, with likely to shift around industry groups as investors keep trying to find the best performing stock group to park their money in.

The VN30-Index for HoSE’s 30 largest capped stocks added 0.85 percent this session, with 26 stocks gaining and 2 losing.

MWG of electronics retailer Mobile World and PNJ of jewelry retailer Phu Nhuan Jewelry led gains with 3 percent and 2.6 percent respectively.

They were followed by SAB of major brewer Sabeco, up 2.3 percent, POW of electricity generator PetroVietnam Power and REE of appliances maker Refrigerated Electrical Engineering, both up 2.2 percent, and GAS of energy giant PetroVietnam Gas, with 2 percent.

Of Vietnam’s three biggest state-owned banks by assets, CTG of VietinBank climbed 1.5 percent while, both BID of BIDV and VCB of Vietcombank added 1.1 percent.

Of private banks, HDB of HDBank, STB of Sacombank and TCB of Techcombank were the best performers, having risen 0.9 percent, 0.9 percent and 0.8 percent respectively.

VIC of private conglomerate Vingroup, HoSE’s largest cap, rose 0.7 percent, VRE of its retail arm Vincom Retail gained 1.7 percent, and VHM of real estate arm Vinhomes kept its opening price.

Only EIB of private Eximbank and NVL of real estate developer Novaland were in the red this session, down 1.2 percent and 0.5 percent respectively.

Foreign investors continued to be net sellers for the fifth straight session to the tune of VND173 billion ($7.5 million) on all three bourses, focusing on offloading VHM of Vinhomes and DXG of real estate developer Dat Xanh Group, which rose 0.11 percent this session.