Vietnamese shares on December 10 extended losses for a second day on both local bourses, led by insurance firms pulling back after recent big gains.
The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange fell 0.7 percent to close at 561.04 points. The southern index has fallen 2.3 percent since December 8.
The HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange dropped 0.9 percent to end at 78.89 points. The northern index has declined by 1.6 percent in the last two days.
The insurance sector index lost 2.3 percent as insurers gave back some of their recent big gains.
Insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), the biggest stock in the industry, fell 2.9 percent after rising 8.3 percent in the previous two days.
Two other insurance stocks, Petrolimex Insurance Corporation (PGI) and PVI Holdings (PVI) lost 2.2 percent and 2 percent, respectively. PGI had jumped 5.1 percent in the previous four days and PVI had surged 8.8 percent in the previous six days.
Local energy stocks also fell after global oil prices dropped to near a seven-year low.
The US benchmark crude West Texas Intermediate (WTI) on December 9 fell by 0.9 percent to trade at 37.16 USD a barrel, after having earlier this week drop to a seven-year low as the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) last week decided not to cut production quotas to bolster prices.
As a result, PetroVietnam Gas Corporation (GAS) was down 1.6 percent and has dropped 5.5 percent since December 4 while PetroVietnam Drilling & Well Services Corporation (PVD) fell 1.7 percent and has declined 7.8 percent in four days.
Other large cap stocks such as the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) and Vingroup JSC also fell and pulled the market down further. BIDV (BID) lost 1.5 percent and Vingroup (VIC) was down 1.2 percent on December 10.
Both local bourses exchanged more than 155 million shares worth 2.4 trillion VND (106 million USD), a decrease of 5.8 percent from December 10.-VNA
