In the morning, nearly 1.18 billion shares of the Vietnam Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank were released on the Ho Chi Minh Stokc Exchange (HoSE) under the ticker MSB, at VND15,000 ($0.65) per share.

24.8 million MSB shares were traded in the morning session, bringing its price up to VND17,600 a share and helping the VN-Index continue rising to 1,091.42 points, continuing its gaining momentum from three previous sessions.

The government had ordered that all commercial banks go public by the end of 2020, and MSB is the first to list on HoSE this month.

On Thursday, 300 million shares priced at VND15,500 each of Petrolimex Petroleum Commercial Joint Stock Bank (PG Bank) will be listed on the Unlisted Public Companies Market (UPCoM), a market with less onerous disclosure requirements considered a traditional step before moving on to main markets HoSE and Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), home to mid- and smaller- caps.

Then, on December 28, more than 571 million ABB shares of An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank will be traded on UPCoM with the reference price of 15,000 VND per share.

However, the VN-Index quickly turned in the afternoon session as sell orders on the market’s blue chips piled in, mostly on stocks in the banking sector.

At 2 p.m., order-matching suddenly halted on the HoSE, with the bourse’s trading volume tally standing still, marking the third consecutive session with technical problems. Although this did not last long, HoSE has not confirmed the exact duration of the issue.

Many investors surveyed by VnExpress with accounts at various securities firms such as VCBS, FPTS, TCBS, ACBS said that they were unable to close trades even though their prices were matched during this period.

The HoSE ended the session fairly balanced, with 215 losing stocks and 224 gaining.

Total trading volume rose 2.7 percent over the previous session, to VND14.95 trillion ($623.8 million), hitting yet another peak this year when not accounting for sessions where major M&A put-through transactions took place.

The VN30-Index for the stock market’s 30 largest caps tumbled 0.62 percent, with 19 losing stocks compared to 8 gaining.

The biggest losers this session where tickers of private banks. VPB of VPBank shed 3 percent, STB of Sacombank 2.6 percent, HDB of HDBank 2.4 percent, TCB of Tehccombank 1.7 percent, and EIB of Eximbank 0.8 percent.

State-owned banks also all ended in the red. Of Vietnam’s three biggest lenders by assets, CTG of VietinBank slumped 0.9 percent, BID of BIDV 0.5 percent, VCB of Vietcombank 0.4 percent, while MBB of mid-sized Military Bank dropped 1.3 percent.

Other major losers this session included SSI of top brokerage SSI Securities Corporation, down 2.7 percent, MWG of electronics retailer Mobile World, down 1.5 percent, SBT of agricultural exporter TTC-Sugar with 1.4 percent, and SAB of brewer Sabeco, with 1.3 percent.

Unlike most other sessions, the ticker that lost the most points for the VN-Index was GVR of rubber producer and industrial zone real estate company Vietnam Rubber Group, which shed 4.66 percent. The major loss had followed a month of near-straight gains, including four sessions where it hit ceiling price, to end at VND28,950, its historical peak on Tuesday.

In the other direction, ROS of construction firm FLC Faros again hit ceiling price, up 6.8 percent, but the ticker is the smallest capped on the VN30 so swings from floor to ceiling much more often than the other stocks.

It was followed by TCH of truck dealer Hoang Huy Group, up 3.8 percent, HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, 1.7 percent, and POW of electricity generator PetroVietnam Power, with 1.6 percent.

VIC of Vietnam’s largest private conglomerate Vingroup, also HoSE’s largest cap, kept its opening price, while VHM of its real estate arm and VRE of retail arm Vincom Retail rose 0.6 percent and 1 percent respectively.