The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, was a sea of green with 249 tickers gaining and 161 losing. Of these, 11 stocks hit their ceiling prices, the highest they could go in a trading session.

Overall, the VN-Index had gained in 10 out of its last 11 sessions, recovering 42.42 points, or 4.62 percent in the course of two weeks.

Total trading volume improved over 15 percent compared to the previous session, which saw the VN-Index rise 1.16 percent, reaching VND9.46 trillion ($408.16 million) on Friday. 67 percent of trading volume went towards the VN30, a basket of the HoSE’s 30 largest capped stocks.

The VN30-Index for this basket soared 1.31 percent, with 19 stocks gaining and 10 losing.

Topping gains were HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, up 4.4 percent, followed by VIC of private conglomerate Vingroup, with 3.9 percent, VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, 3.1 percent, and ROS of construction firm FLC Faros, with 2.7 percent.

VHM of real estate developer Vinhomes and VRE of mall operator Vincom Retail, both being subsidiaries of Vingroup, were up 2.6 percent and 0.9 percent respectively.

Other major gainers included KHD of real estate developer Khang Dien House, up 1.9 percent, MWG of electronics retailer Mobile World, 1.4 percent, and MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group, with 1.2 percent.

Most private bank stocks performed positively, although gains in this group were more modest compared to the above tickers. HDB of HDBank added 0.8 percent, VPB of VPBank 0.4 percent, TCB of Techcombank 0.2 percent, EIB of Eximbank kept its opening price, while STB of Sacombank shed 0.3 percent.

Of Vietnam’s three biggest state-owned lenders by assets, VCB of Vietcombank was up 1 percent, while BID of BIDV and CTG of VietinBank were down 0.3 percent and 0.6 percent respectively.

Topping losses this session was SSI of top brokerage Saigon Securities Inc., SBT of agricultural firm TTC-Sugar, both down 0.6 percent.

In oil and gas, POW of Vietnam’s second biggest electricity generator PetroVietnam Power dropped 0.5 percent, GAS of energy giant PetroVietnam Gas fell 0.3 percent, while PLX of petroleum distributor Petrolimex added 0.2 percent.

Meanwhile, The HNX-Index for the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid- and small-caps, climbed 0.6 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Companies Market added 0.42 percent.

Foreign investors continued to be net sellers this session to the tune of nearly VND250 billion on all three bourses. The most net sold stocks were MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group and VHM of Vinhomes.