Contrary to predictions of most securities companies, investor sentiment seemed to have stabilized with them not afraid to put down money to enter the market amid strong volatility. The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, was a sea of green with 307 tickers gaining and 94 losing.

With the last three sessions wiping out gains accumulated in the previous 18 sessions, securities companies had said that the VN-Index would likely remain in the 800 to 845-point range in the short term, with some making predictions as low as 780 points.

The brokerages pointed to corrective pressure from investors trying to cash out on short-term gains, and similar negative movements in other Asian stock markets as investors anticipate a second wave of the novel coronavirus hitting Asia.

Total trading volume on Tuesday was one fourth of the previous session, reaching VND5.6 trillion ($243 million), but this was because over VND15 trillion ($651 million) worth of transactions were put-through trades of a single ticker: VHM of real estate developer Vinhomes, made by foreign investors.

The VN30-Index for the market’s 30 largest capped stocks added 2.58 percent, with 26 tickers gaining and three losing. Transactions of stocks in this basket accounted for just over 50 percent of liquidity this session.

Leading gains were VHM of real estate developer Vinhomes and VRE of mall operator Vincom Retail, both surging 7 percent, their ceiling prices. Both are subsidiaries of Vietnam’s largest private conglomerate Vingroup, represented by the ticker VIC, which gained 4.9 percent.

SSI of securities firm Saigon Securities Inc. was one of the biggest gainers with 5.2 percent, followed by VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, up 4.5 percent, and CTG of state-owned banking giant Vietinbank, up 4.3 percent, and BVH of insurance giant Bao Viet Group, with 4.2 percent.

Of state-owned banks, MBB of mid-sized Military Bank added 2.4 percent, VCB of giant Vietcombank rose 2.1 percent, and BID of giant BIDV rose 2 percent.

VPB of private VPBank and TCB of private Techcombank were some of the bigger gainers, adding 2.8 percent and 2.5 percent respectively, while oil and gas stocks performed less well, with POW of electricity firm PetroVietnam Electricity rising 1.9 percent, GAS of energy giant PetroVietnam Gas 1.5 percent, and PLX of petroleum distributor Petrolimex 0.7 percent.  

In the opposite direction, EIB of private Eximbank topped losses with 1.6 percent, followed by VJC of budget carrier Vietjet Air and STB of private Sacombank, both down 1.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, rose 1.76 percent, and the UPCoM-Index for stocks on the Unlisted Public Companies Market added 0.97 percent.

Foreign investors continued to be net buyers to the tune of VND100 billion ($4.3 million) on all three bourses, with buying pressure mostly on VHM of Vinhomes and SSI of Saigon Securities Inc.