An investor looks at stock prices on a smartphone at a brokerage in Ho Chi Minh City.
Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran. 

The VN-Index added 0.08 percent to 1,112.19 points Thursday, with trading volume at a two-month low. 

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, saw a fairly balanced session with 209 stocks gaining and 220 losing.

Total trading volume fell over 15 percent compared to the previous session, to VND12.43 trillion ($538.75 million), the lowest HoSE has seen in the past two months, but still more than double liquidity of the bourse before the Covid-19 pandemic.

The VN30-Index for the market’s 30 largest caps edged down 0.02 percent, with 14 stocks losing and 10 gaining.

The biggest losing stock on the VN30 this session was VIC of private conglomerate Vingroup, down 2.3 percent, followed by tickers of two private banks, STB of Sacombank and HDB of HDBank, down 2.2 percent and 1.9 percent respectively.

The performance of banking sector stocks leaned towards the red this session. In the private sector, TPB of TPBank shed 1.1 percent, TCB of Techcombank kept its opening price, while VPB of VPBank bucked the trend by gaining 3.2 percent.

Of state-owned banks, CTG of VietinBank shed 0.6 percent, VCB of Vietcombank kept its opening price, BID of BIDV edged up 0.4 percent, while MBB of mid-sized Military Bank dropped by 0.8 percent.

Other major losers this session included NVL of real estate developer Novaland, which fell 1.8 percent, VRE of mall operator Vincom Retail, 1.5 percent, REE of appliances maker Refrigeration Electrical Engineering, 0.9 percent, and VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, with 0.8 percent.

In the opposite direction, FPT of IT services group FPT surged 3.5 percent, followed by KDH of real estate developer Khang Dien House, with 3.3 percent.

Oil and gas were the best performers this session, with PLX of gasoline distributor Petrolimex rising 1.6 percent, GAS of energy giant PetroVietnam Gas 1.3 percent, and POW of electricity generator PetroVietnam Power with 1.2 percent.

Indices for the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), home to mid- and smaller-caps, and the Unlisted Public Companies Market (UPCoM) rose 0.03 percent and 1.04 percent respectively.

Foreign investors were net buyers for the seventh consecutive session, to the tune of over VND165 billion on all three bourses.

The most net bought tickers were VHM of real estate giant Vinhomes, which rose 1.23 percent, and the FUEVFVND, an exchange traded fund replicating stocks performance on the VN Diamond Index.

The VN Diamond Index is a group of 14 stocks, which includes blue chips like TCB, VPB, MBB, MWG, PNJ, CTG and FPT. The basket of stocks, selected based on their free-float capitalization, was introduced by HoSE in November 2019, with the FUEVFVND commencing trade on May 12 last year.