The benchmark index saw steady growth throughout the day with strong gains in the session’s last hour to end 2.24 points higher than the previous day.

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the index is based, saw 167 stocks gain and 199 lose. Total transaction volume fell 23 percent over the previous session to VND4.15 trillion ($180 million).

The VN30-Index, a basket of HoSE’s 30 largest capped stocks, rose 0.11 percent, with 13 gaining and 14 losing.

Topping gains in the basket again was SAB of Vietnam’s largest brewer Sabeco, up 3.7 percent, followed by VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, up 2.4 percent, and HDB of HDBank with 2 percent.

But most other private banks ended in the red, with TCB of Techcombank down 1.3 percent, MBB of MB down 1.2 percent, and VPB of VPBank down 0.7 percent.

Among the three largest state-owned banks by assets, only VCB of Vietcombank gained 0.1 percent, while BID of BIDV fell 1.3 percent and CTG of Vietinbank went down 1.1 percent.

Other gainers included GAS of state-owned Petrovietnam Gas with 1.3 percent, PNJ of jewelry company Phu Nhuan, 1.3 percent and VJC of budget airline Vietjet, 1.2 percent.

The HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, fell 0.59 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for stocks on the Unlisted Public Companies Market added 0.11 percent.

Foreign investors turned net buyers with a margin of VND10.74 billion ($463.8 million), with buying pressure focused mainly on VNM of Vinamilk and CTD of Coteccons Construction Jsc.