The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, saw 233 stocks lose and 153 gain. VND3.85 trillion ($166.82 million) worth of shares changed hands this session, down 25 percent over the previous session, and far below July’s average of VND4.5 trillion ($194.98 million).

The benchmark index had remained deep in the red throughout most of the trading day, falling as low as 842 points, before buying pressure brought it back above the 850-point support level at the close of the day.

During the day, national brand SJC gold fell 1.34 percent over the previous day, to VND53.88 million ($2,333) per tael, while State Bank of Vietnam Governor Le Minh Hung at a morning meeting reiterated its stance on low interest rates, asking banks to continue restructuring and recovering bad debt to maintain "supportive" rates for Covid-19 stricken businesses.

The VN30-Index for the stock market’s 30 largest caps shed 0.06 percent, with 18 losing and 7 gaining.

Real estate was one of the worst performing sectors in this basket, with ROS of FLC Faros down 2.2 percent, TCH of Hoang Huy Group, which also deals trucks, down 2 percent, and KDH of Khang Dien House and VHM of Vinhomes keeping their reference prices.

Oil and gas tickers finished in the red, too. POW of electricity generator PetroVietnam Power dropped 1.3 percent, PLX of petroleum distributor Petrolimex, 0.9 percent, and GAS of energy giant PetroVietnam Gas, 0.4 percent.

Other major losing stocks included VRE of mall operator Vincom Retail, down 1.3 percent, MWG of electronics retailer Mobile World, down 1.1 percent, and SSI of top brokerage Saigon Securities Inc., down 0.7 percent.

Of Vietnam’s three biggest lenders by assets, BID of BIDV shed 0.8 percent, CTG of VietinBank remained flat, while VCB of Vietcombank gained 0.4 percent.

Private banks saw mixed results, with VPB of VPBank and STB of Sacombank both falling 0.5 percent, EIB of Eximbank keeping its opening price while TCB of Techcombank and HDB of HDB gained 1.5 percent and 0.8 percent respectively.

Other major gaining stocks were HPG of leading steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, up 0.8 percent, FPT of IT services giant FPT, 0.4 percent, and VIC of private conglomerate Vingroup, 0.3 percent.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid- and smaller-caps, rose 0.84 percent, and the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Public Companies Market added 0.21 percent.

Foreign investors continued to be net sellers for the seventh straight session to the tune of VND102 billion ($4.42 million) on all three bourses, with VHM of Vinhomes and MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group (down 0.8 percent) the most offloaded stocks.