The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, was a sea of red, with 271 tickers losing and 133 gaining. Total trading volume was VND6.41 trillion ($275.05 million), having changed little over the past four trading sessions, but remained far higher than last month’s average of VND5 trillion a session.

The benchmark VN-Index had immediately sunk into the red within the first 30 minutes of trading, recovering slightly above its opening of 912.5 points at the start of the afternoon session, before diving back into the red.

Although many stocks performed negatively this session, most fell by a small percentages, with only five tickers on the HoSE sliding to their floor prices, compared to 11 of those which hit ceiling price, the most they could move in a single trading session.

The VN30-Index for the stock market’s 30 largest caps fell 0.59 percent, with 21 stocks losing and 8 gaining.

Topping losses this session were tickers of retail and food and beverage firms. PNJ of jewelry retailer and VRE of mall operator Vincom Retail both lost 1.7 percent, followed by SAB of brewery Sabeco, down 1.6 percent, and VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, down 1.5 percent.

VIC of Vingroup, Vietnam’s largest private conglomerate which also has the largest market cap on the HoSE, plunged 1.6 percent, and VHM of its real estate arm Vinhomes dropped 0.5 percent.

Results were mixed in the private banking sector, which saw STB of Sacombank and VPB of VPBank some of the worst performers, down 1.6 percent and 1.5 percent respectively.

HDB of HDBank kept its opening price, while TCB of Techcombank and EIB of Eximbank were both in the green with 0.7 percent and 0.3 percent respectively.

Of Vietnam’s biggest state-owned lenders by assets, BID of BIDV shed 1.2 percent, CTG of VietinBank 1 percent, while VCB of Vietcombank rose 0.8 percent.

Thursday was also not a positive session for real estate tickers, with TCH of Hoang Huy Group slumping 1.2 percent, KDH of Khang Dien House 0.6 percent, ROS of FLC Faros 0.5 percent, and NVL of Novaland 0.2 percent.

In the opposite direction, MBB of state-owned mid-sized Military Bank led gains with 2.1 percent. The ticker had been one of the best perfomers in the last few weeks, having only lost once in its last 10 sessions.

Other major gainers this session included GAS of energy giant PetroVietnam Gas, up 1.1 percent, REE of appliances maker Refrigeration Electrical Engineering 0.9 percent, and SBT of agricultural firm TTC-Sugar with 0.3 percent.

Reports from securities companies remain optimistic that the VN-Index would end between the 905-915 points by the end of the week, with Vietnam’s Covid-19 situation under control and the country having gone 20 straight days without an intra-community transmission, and the government looking to kick off the second phase of a tourism stimulus programme in the near future.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid- and small-capped stocks, slid 0.53 percent, and the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Public Companies Market rose 0.07 percent.

Foreign investors turned net sellers to the tune of VND170 billion on all three bourses. The most net sold stocks were HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, down 0.6 percent and POW of electricity generator PetroVietnam Power, down 1.4 percent.