VN-Index back in the green after single red session

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, saw a fairly balanced session with 221 stocks gaining and 199 losing. Out of these, 15 stocks hit their ceiling prices, the highest they could go in a trading session.

Total trading volume rose marginally over the previous session, to VND11.68 trillion ($504.2 million), of which half went towards the VN30, a basket of the market's largest capped stocks.

The VN30-Index for this basket surged 1.08 percent, significantly outperforming the general market, with 18 gaining tickers and seven losing.

Topping gains were stocks in the private banking sector. STB of Sacombank soared 5.5 percent, VPB of VPBank 4.1 percent, TCB of Techcombank 1.7 perent, HDB of HDBank 1.4 percent, while EIB of Eximbank shed 0.3 percent.

Results in the public banking sector, however, were mixed. MBB of mid-sized Military Bank rose 2.5 percent, while of Vietnam's three biggest lenders by assets, CTG of VietinBank was up 1.2 percent, BID of BIDV kept its opening price, while VCB of Vietcombank was the worst performer on the VN30, down 1.1 percent.

Other major gainers this session included TCH of truck dealer Hoang Huy Group, up 5.4 percent, SBT of agricultural exporter TTC-Sugar, up 2.5 percent, VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, with 1.4 percent, and MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group, with 1.2 percent.

VIC of private conglomerate Vingroup, HoSE's biggest cap, rose 1.1 percent, while VHM of its real estate arm Vinhomes was up 0.8 percent, and VRE of retail arm Vincom Retail added 0.2 percent.

In oil and gas, GAS of energy giant PetroVietnam Gas and POW of electricity generator PetroVietnam Power both kept their opening prices, while PLX of gasoline distributor Petrolimex shed 0.4 percent.

In the other direction, the biggest losers included ROS of construction firm FLC Faros, down 0.9 percent, KDH of real estate developer Khang Dien House, down 0.7 percent, and FPT of IT services firm FPT, with 0.4 percent.

The HNX-Index for the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid- and small-caps, climbed 0.83 percent, but the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Companies Market jumped 1.36 percent.

Foreign investors continued to be net buyers to the tune of nearly VND420 billion on all three bourses, with buying pressure mostly on VNM of Vinamilk, and the FUEVFVND, an exchange-traded fund replicating the performance of stocks on the VN Diamond Index, a bag of 14 stocks, most of which are blue chips.