The benchmark index had plunged to below 787 points this morning from the opening of 801.13 points, hours after the Ministry of Health announced 45 new intra-community Covid-19 infections, all linked to hospitals in Da Nang, raising Vietnam’s active cases to 140.

One patient was confirmed to have died at 5:30 am Friday morning, marking the first death of anyone who contracted the disease in Vietnam.

However, buying pressure returned soon after, and the VN-Index pulled back to even rise slightly above its opening price for two hours at noon, before sliding back into the red at the end of the trading session.

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, saw 255 stocks lose and 115 gain. Total trading volume was VND3.9 trillion ($169.68 million), up 20 percent over the previous session.

The VN30-Index for the stock market’s 30 largest capped stocks dropped 0.71 percent, with 21 tickers losing and 6 gaining.

VIC of private conglomerate Vingroup, HoSE’s largest capped stock, led gains with 2.8 percent, followed by NVL of real estate developer Novaland, up 1.6 percent, and VHM of real estate developer Vinhomes, which is a subsdiary of Vingroup, up 1.4 percent.

VIC and VHM both contributed 3.35 points to the VN-Index, according to data from brokerage VNDIRECT. The VN-Index fell 2.74 points this session.

The only other gainers were MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group, which added 1.4 percent, PNJ of jewelry retailer Phu Nhuan Jewelry and MWG of electronics retailers Mobile World, which edged up 0.3 percent and 0.2 percent respectively.

Leading losses were ROS of real estate developer FLC Faros, down 5 percent, and VRE of mall operator Vincom Retail, down 3.3 percent.

EIB of Eximbank and TCB of Techcombank, both private lenders, followed with 3.2 percent and 2.4 percent respectively. STB of Sacombank, HDB of HDBank, and VPB of VPBank also fell by 1 percent, 0.6 percent, and 0.5 percent respectively.

All of Vietnam’s state-owned lenders were also in the red this session. MBB of mid-sized Miliary Bank fell 0.6 percent, while the biggest three by assets, BID of BIDV, VCB of Vietcombank and CTG of VietinBank, slipped 1.5 percent, 1.3 percent, and 0.7 percent respectively.

The other major losing stocks this session included CTD of construction giant Coteccons, down 2.1 percent, HPG of leading steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, down 1.8 percent, and VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, also down 1.8 percent.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, fell 0.55 percent; and the UPCoM-Index for stocks on the Unlisted Public Companies Market edged down 0.11 percent.

Foreign investors turned net sellers to the tune of VND119 billion ($5.18 million) on all three bourses, ending a streak of five consecutive net buying sessions, with selling pressure focused mainly on MSN of Masan Group and VIC of VIC of Vingroup.