An investor looks at stock boards at a securities firm in HCMC.
Photo by VnExpress/Huu Khoa. 

The VN-Index gained 3.94 points, or 0.44 percent, to reach 893.31 points Thursday, but most large caps lost this session. 

On the VN-Index, which represents stocks on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), Vietnam’s main bourse, 167 tickers gained while 179 lost.

Thursday was a relatively busy session, with order-matched transactions reaching VND2.92 trillion ($125.67 million), compared to last month’s average daily trading of VND2.77 trillion ($119.21 million) per session.

The VN30-Index for the bourse’s 30 biggest market caps edged up 0.13 percent, with 11 gainers and 15 losers.

MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group topped gains with 3.9 percent, followed by SSI of securities firm Saigon Securities Inc., up 3.4 percent, and VPB of private midsized lender VPBank, 2.6 percent.

VCB of Vietcombank and BID of BIDV, two of Vietnam’s three biggest state-owned banks by assets were among the gainers with 1.7 percent and 1.1 percent.

Meanwhile, ROS of real estate developer FLC Faros topped losses once again with 6.4 percent, almost hitting its floor price. The blue chip has been one of the most volatile VN30 stocks of late, swinging from floor to ceiling prices for most sessions in the past month.

It was followed by STB of private lender Sacombank with 2.4 percent. Three other stocks of midsized private banks also lost this session, with TCB of Techcombank shedding 1.1 percent, EIB of Eximbank, 1.1 percent, and HDB of HDBank, 0.5 percent.

Of the state-owned banks, CTG of VietinBank dropped 1.9 percent, while MBB of Military Bank, a smaller lender by assets, fell 0.5 percent.

Other major losing tickers this session included CTD of construction giant Coteccons, down 1.9 percent, and FPT of IT services giant FPT, down 1.6 percent.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for stocks on Hanoi Stock Exchange, Vietnam’s second main bourse for small and midcap stocks, added 0.89 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for unlisted public companies edged down 0.16 percent.

Foreign investors were net sellers for the 18th consecutive session on all three bourses, with a net sell value of VND285 billion ($12.27 million). Selling pressure was mostly focused on HNX-listed HSB of Saigon Hanoi Bank, which saw foreign investors offload a net of nearly VND304 billion ($13.08 million) of its shares.