The index started falling right at the beginning of the session and continued to plummet before closing with a near 31-point drop.

Together with the fall on Friday, VN-Index has lost 76 points and is now at its lowest since July 29.

Vietnam has been recording over 10,000 Covid-19 cases a day in the last four days, with a new single-day record of 13,417 Saturday.

Trading value on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the index is based, fell 33 percent from this year’s peak on Friday to VND25.82 trillion ($1.14 billion).

The VN30 basket, comprising the 30 largest capped stocks, saw 26 tickers in the red, led by GVR of Vietnam Rubber Group with a 5.9 percent drop to a near two-week low.

MSN of conglomerate Masan Group fell to a near four-week low with a 5.1 percent fall, while ACB of Asia Commercial Bank lost 4.8 percent to a near six-week low.

Other losers include STB of HCMC-based lender Sacombank, down 4.6 percent, and MBB of lender MB, down 4.3 percent.

Only three blue chip tickers gained: SSI of leading brokerage SSI Securities Corporation rose 1.4 percent, while NVL of real estate developer Novaland Group went up 1.2 percent and VJC of budget airline Vietjet rose 0.4 percent.

Foreign investors were net sellers for the 10th session in a row to the tune of VND382 billion with strongest pressure on HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group and MSN.

The HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, lost 0.95 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Public Companies Market fell 1.34 percent.