The index had stayed high in the green for most of the trading day, reaching as high as 970 points before sliding nearly 15 points within the final 30 minutes of trading.

Sell orders on four of the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange’s (HoSE) biggest capped banks, BID of BIDV, CTG of VietinBank, and VCB of Vietcombank, Vietnam’s three biggest state-owned lenders, and VPB of private VPBank, contributed to a 6-point loss on the benchmark index.

HoSE, on which the VN-Index is based, saw 286 tickers lose and 137 gain. Overall, the financial and banking sector saw the most stocks in the red, followed by machinery and appliances manufacturing and mining, while food and beverages saw most tickers in the green.

Total trading volume this session reached VND8.55 trillion ($368.98 million), far above last month’s average of VND6.6 trillion. Sixty percent of this involved VN30, a basket of the HoSE’s 30 largest capped stocks.

The VN30-Index for this group shed 1.15 percent, with 23 stocks losing and 6 gaining.

The biggest losers this session included VPB of VPBank, down 5.4 percent, STB of Sacombank, 4.1 percent, and TCB of Techcombank, down 2.7 percent.

Among state-owned banks, BID of BIDV shed 4.2 percent, CTG of VietinBank, 4.1 percent, VCB of Vietcombank 1.7 percent, and MBB of mid-sized Military Bank, 2.4 percent.

Most real estate and construction blue chips were also in the red. ROS of FLC Faros and TCH of Hoang Huy Group shed 2.2 percent each, VHM of Vinhomes, 1.3 percent and NVL of Novaland, 0.5 percent. KDH of Khang Dien House was the sole gainer with 0.8 percent.

Other major losers included FPT of IT services giant FPT, GAS of energy giant PetroVietnam Gas, and SBT of agricultural firm TTC-Sugar, all down 2 percent each.

In the opposite direction, MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group topped gains with 2.2 percent, followed by PNJ of jewelry retailer Phu Nhuan Jewelry with 1.5 percent, and VIC of Vietnam’s largest private conglomerate Vingroup with 1.1 percent.

The only other gainers were PLX of petroleum distributor Petrolimex, up 1 percent, and VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, with 0.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid- and small-caps, tumbled 1.88 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Companies Market shed 0.53 percent.

Foreign investors continued to be net sellers this session to the tune of over VND420 billion on all three bourses. The most net sold stocks were MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group and HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, which was down 0.1 percent.