Despite experiencing yet another technical difficulty where trading froze in the session’s final hour, the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, recorded its busiest trading day ever with total trading volume at VND18 trillion ($782.83 million).

This is nearly four times as high compared to the average trading day in 2019, where liquidity hovered around VND3-5 trillion, when the market was not affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The HoSE had experienced similar technical difficulties in the final weeks of 2020, saying that the sheer number of orders had caused the system to overload. To remedy this, the bourse raised its standard lot from 50 to 100 shares on Monday, allowing for more shares to change hands with less orders placed.

HoSE, which accounts for around 93 percent market capitalization of all listed companies, saw 244 stocks gain and 197 this session.

The VN30-Index for the stock market’s 30 largest caps gained 0.85 percent, with 17 tickers rising and 13 falling.

State owned banks were the best performers this session. CTG of VietinBank rose to its ceiling price, up 6.9 percent, followed by VCB of Vietcombank, up 5.7 percent, BID of BIDV with 1.9 percent, while MBB of mid-sized Military Bank added 0.6 percent.

Private banks were also all in the green. EIB of Eximbank was up 5.1 percent, HDB of HDBank 3.6 percent, STB of Sacombank 1.7 percent, TCB of Techcombank 0.5 percent, and VPB of VPBank 0.1 percent.

Other notable gainers included TCH of Hoang Huy Group, NVL of Novaland and KDH of Khang Dien House, all of which are real estate developers, with gains of 3.7 percent, 2.6 percent and 2 percent respectively.

In the opposite direction, POW of electricity generator PetroVietnam Power topped losses with 2 percent, followed by ROS of construction firm FLC Faros, 2 percent, MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group, 1.1 percent, and VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, with 0.9 percent.

Of the Vingroup family, VIC of parent conglomerate Vingroup added 0.5 percent, while its two subsidiaries, VHM of real estate developer Vinhomes and VRE of mall operator Vincom Retail shed 0.8 percent and 0.3 percent respectively.

The HNX-Index for the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid-and small-caps, rose 1.71 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Companies Market gained 0.52 percent.

Foreign investors continued to be net buyers of over VND200 billion on all three bourses, with buying pressure on CTG of VietinBank and VCB of Vietcombank.