The benchmark VN-Index saw steady growth throughout the day, gradually gaining a total of 16.26 points by the end of the session.

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the index is based, was a sea of green with 339 stocks gaining and only 64 losing. Total transaction volume improved 22 percent over the previous session, reaching VND4.75 trillion ($203.28 million).

Notably, this session, over 60 percent of the market’s trading was attributed to stocks outside the VN30, a basket of HoSE’s 30 largest capped stocks. Normally, the VN30 would account for over half of trading.

The VN30-Index itself rose 2.31 percent, with 29 stocks gaining and one losing.

Topping gains this session was SBT of agricultural firm TTC-Sugar, up 6.1 percent, followed by HPG of leading steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, up 5.5 percent, and MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group, with 4.2 percent.

Of Vietnam’s three largest state-owned lenders by assets, VCB of Vietcombank climbed 3.1 percent, CTG of VietinBank 2.6 percent, and BID of BIDV 1.5 percent. MBB of mid-sized Military Bank gained 2.9 percent.

VPB of VPBank, STB of Sacombank, and TCB of Techcombank led gains of private banks with 3.7 percent, 2.5 percent and 2.5 percent respectively.

Of the VN30’s top 10 stocks by market cap, excluding the banking stocks, VHM of real estate developer Vinhomes, VIC of private conglomerate Vingroup, GAS of energy giant PetroVietnam Gas, and SAB of major brewer Sabeco gained less than 1 percent.

VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk was the only exception in this group, having gained 2.1 percent.

KDH of real estate developer Khang Dien House and TCH of truck dealer Hoang Huy Group, two stocks that had just been added to the VN30 this session by HoSE regulators, added 3.3 percent and 0.8 percent respectively. The two stocks displaced BVH of insurance corporation Bao Viet Group and CTD of construction giant Coteccons.

HoSE conducts a review of the VN30 every six months to include stocks that best fit their criteria of blue chips, which includes metrics such as market capitalization, average trading volume, and free-float ratio.

Other major gainers this session included SSI of top brokerage Saigon Securities Inc., up 4.1 percent, REE of appliances maker Refrigerated Electrical Engineering, with 3.9 percent, and PLX of petroleum distributor Petrolimex, with 3.7 percent.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, surged 2.72 percent; and the UPCoM-Index for stocks on the Unlisted Public Companies Market added 1.3 percent.

Foreign investors turned net buyers, by a fine margin of VND600 million ($25,678) on all three bourses, ending a streak of five consecutive net buying sessions, with selling pressure focused mainly on HPG of Hoa Phat Group and VCB of Vietcombank.