The index started off strong with a gain of nearly 10 points in the morning to hit the 1,990 range and stayed in the green mostly before plunging in the afternoon and closing with a 0.44-point increase, its fourth gaining session in a row.

Trading volume on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the index is based, fell 4.7 percent to VND15.22 trillion ($659.5 million). The bourse saw 227 stocks gain and 190 lose.

The VN30 basket, comprising the 30 largest capped stocks on the HoSE, saw 12 tickers gain, led by TPB of private TPBank, up 6.3 percent to a new all-time high of VND29,750. The ticker has surged 8.8 percent in the last three sessions.

HDB of HDBank followed with a 3.5 percent gain. But unlike other private banking blue chips, the ticker has not been able to climb back to this year’s peak that it reached on January 15. It is still 4.5 percent away.

VRE of retail real estate arm Vincom Retail gained 1.3 percent, and HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group rose 1.1 percent to another new peak of VND46,700.

VJC of budget airline Vietjet rounded off the top five with a 1.1 percent gain to its highest price since January last year, showing that it is now approaching pre-pandemic figures after going through major slumps in March and July last year.

On the losing side, GAS of the state-owned PetroVietnam Gas Jsc had a 1 percent fall, followed by MBB of Military Bank, down 0.9 percent and POW of electricity distributor PetroVietnam Power Corporation, down 0.8 percent.

Foreign investors were net sellers for the eighth session in a row to the tune of VND731 billion, highest in the last 11 sessions. Selling pressures were strongest on VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, HPG and MSN of conglomerate Masan Group.

The HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, fell 1.76 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for stocks on the Unlisted Public Companies Market gained 0.4 percent.