The index had plunged 1.43 percent the previous day, with short-term profit taking pressure from investors pushing total trading volume to VND14.53 trillion ($629.53 million), this year’s peak, not including sessions with major M&A put-through transactions.

Securities firm BVSC had forecasted that the market would see a major movement this session, which is when investment funds restructuring the composition of their Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) at the end of the quarter.

When reviewing their ETFs for restructuring, funds will look at criteria such as performance, market capitalization, foreign ownership limit, and trading volume to determine which stocks to keep, sell or buy.

Tickers that no longer fit these criteria are offloaded en-masse into the market, and vice versa, putting significant buying or selling pressure on certain stocks, especially blue chips, which make up Vietnam’s biggest ETFs such as the VFMVN30 or the VFMVN DIAMOND.

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, was a sea of green with 301 stocks gaining and 129 losing. Total trading volume abated nearly 10 percent over the previous session, to VND13.24 trillion.

The VN30-Index for the stock market’s 30 largest caps did much better than the general market, soaring 1.94 percent, with 25 gaining tickers and 5 keeping their opening prices.

Banking and finance blue chips continued to top gains this session, with SSI of top brokerage Saigon Securities Inc. and VPB of private VPBank hitting their ceiling prices, having gained 7 percent and 6.9 percent respectively.

Of private banks, HDB of HDB rose 4.2 percent, TCB of Techcombank 3 percent, STB of Sacombank 2.4 percent, and EIB of Ex

imbank 0.9 percent.

Of state-owned banks, MBB of mid-sized Military Bank led with 4.5 percent, while Vietnam’s three biggest lenders by assets, VCB of Vietcombank, CTG of VietinBank and BID of BIDV were up 3 percent, 1.5 percent and 1.3 percent respectively.

Other major gainers this session included PLX of petroleum distributor Petrolimex, up 2.9 percent, HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, 2.5 percent, PNJ of jewelry retailer Phu Nhuan Jewelry, 2 percent, and SAB of major brewer Sabeco, with 1.9 percent.

In a session with no blue chips in the red, the construction and real estate sector saw the most modest growth.

Hoang Huy Group was the best gainer with 0.8 percent, KDH of Khang Dien House and VHM of Vinhomes both added 0.7 percent, while NVL of Novaland and ROS of FLC Faros both kept their opening prices.

Other tickers in the yellow, which is the color to represent no change in price, were VIC of private conglomerate Vingroup, VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, and SBT of agricultural exporter TTC-Sugar.

Meanwhile, both the HNX-Index for the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid- and small-caps, and the UPCoM-Index for the unlisted companies continued their consistent gaining streak, rising 2.92 percent and 0.94 percent.

Foreign investors turned net buyers to the tune of VND64 billion on all three bourses, after net selling VND778 billion the previous session. The most net bought stocks were TPB of TPBank and MBB of Military Bank.