The benchmark index also fell to a two-month low, undoing all its gains since May 6. According to analysts, fear of the resurgence of the Covid-19 epidemic has pushed local investors into mass selloffs.

The central city of Da Nang has confirmed three Covid-19 community transmitted infections over the weekend, and a fourth was recorded in nearby Quang Ngai Province. Authorities are still searching for the source of infection.

With renewed local transmission of Covid-19, Vietnam has returned to pandemic prevention protocols on aircraft, trains, ships and buses, including sanitizers, masks and health declaration procedures.

Foreign investors, however, seemed to be bottom-fishing for the second session in a row by net buying VND292 billion ($12.71 million) worth of stocks on HoSE.

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, on Monday was bleeding red, with 377 tickers losing and only 33 gaining.

Total trading volume fell slightly over the previous session, to VND7.02 trillion ($305.55 million) but remained far above the average daily trading level of VND4.3 trillion ($187.16 million) from the beginning of July until last Thursday, when Vietnam was still free of confirmed intra-community Covid-19 infections.

The VN30-Index for the stock market’s largest caps plummeted 5.48 percent, with all of its tickers in the red, 17 of them hitting their floor prices. The floor price of stocks on the VN30 are equivalent to downward movements of between 6.6 percent and 7 percent, depending on the ticker.

Most banking stocks hit their floor prices including the state-owned MBB of Military Bank, BID of BIDV, and CTG of VietinBank; and the private HDB of HDBank, STB of Sacombank, TCB of Techcombank and VPB of VPBank.

VCB of state-owned Vietcombank and EIB of private Eximbank did not hit their minimum prices, slumping 4.9 percent and 2.4 percent respectively.

In the financial sector, BVH of insurance giant Bao Viet Group and SSI of top brokerage Saigon Securities also slid to their floor prices.

The other tickers that did the same were PNJ of jewelry retailer Phu Nhuan Jewelry, CTD of construction giant Coteccons, SBT of agri-firm TTC-Sugar, and VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk.

Stocks related to private conglomerate Vingroup, HoSE’s biggest cap, where some of the better performers, none of them reaching their floor prices. VIC of parent corporation Vingroup shed 3.4 percent, VRE of its retail arm 4.1 percent, and VHM of real estate arm Vinhomes 6.7 percent.

NVL of real estate developer Novaland was the best performing blue chip, edging down only 0.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, plummeted 6.84 percent; and the UPCoM-Index for stocks on the Unlisted Public Companies Market fell 3.82 percent.

Buying pressure from foreign investors this session was focused mostly on VCB of Vietcombank and VHM of Vinhomes.