The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, saw 188 tickers gaining and 197 losing. Total trading volume fell over 17 percent compared to the previous session, reaching VND6.64 trillion ($287.18 million).

The bourse has been seeing some of the year’s busiest sessions in the past week with daily trading volume consistently totaling around VND7 trillion, as the VN-Index continued to recover back to levels before the Covid-19 pandemic caused mass sell-offs on the stock market.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic shook Vietnam’s equity markets, daily trading volume usually hovered between VND3-4 trillion, while in quiet periods, such as the month before Lunar New Year, as well as when Vietnam first closed off its borders in February as a pandemic response, trading could go as low as VND2 trillion per day.

The VN30-Index for the stock market’s 30 largest caps this session gained 0.54 percent, with 13 stocks rising and 10 falling.

Topping gains were MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group, up 6.6 percent, and SAB of major brewer Sabeco, with 2.7 percent.

TCH of truck dealer Hoang Huy Group, HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, and VIC of Vietnam’s largest private conglomerate were among the highest gainers, with increases of 1.9 percent, 1.4 percent and 1.4 percent respectively.

CTG of state-owned banking giant VietinBank was the only banking sector stock to have ended in the green, having gained 1.8 percent.

Tickers of most private banks kept their opening prices this session, namely EIB of Eximbank, HDB of HDBank, STB of Sacombank, and TCB of Techcombank. VCB of state-owned Vietcombank also remained flat.

Topping losses this session were tickers of two real estate developers, ROS of FLC Faros, and NVL of Novaland, down 4.6 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.

Banking sector stocks in the red included MBB of mid-sized state-owned Military Bank, which shed 0.6 percent, VPB of private VPBank, down 0.2 percent, an BID of state-owned giant BIDV, down 0.1 percent.

Other major losing stocks included FPT of IT services giant FPT, down 0.6 percent, and MWG of electronics retailer Mobile World, down 0.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid- and small-capped stocks, rose 0.96 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Public Companies Market was up 0.76 percent.

Foreign investors were net sellers for the 12th consecutive session to the tune of over VND40 billion on all three bourses. Again, the most net sold stocks were VNM of Vinamilk and CTG of VietinBank.