HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares extended losses for a second day, driven by the energy sector after crude prices retreated from a four-month high reached last week.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange fell 1.4 per cent to finish at 674.19 points, down a total 1.9 per cent after two sessions.

The HNX Index on the smaller Hà Nội Stock Exchange dropped 0.8 per cent to end at 84.59 points. The northern market index has lost 1.6 per cent in two trading days.

The energy sector was the worst decliner yesterday, resulting from a decrease in global oil prices on Friday, on worries that the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) may not reach an agreement with Russia on production cuts.

US crude West Texas Intermediate closed last week at US$49.81 a barrel, down 1.2 per cent, from the four-month high of $50.44 a barrel. London-traded Brent crude fell 1.1 per cent on Friday to end last week at $51.93 a barrel.

Oil and gas firms that posted losses in their share values included PetroVietnam Gas Corp (GAS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corp (PVD) and PetroVietnam Technical Services Corp (PVS).

GAS slumped 4.8 per cent, PVD lost 3 per cent and PVS dropped 2.8 per cent.

The second-day fall of the stock market was also attributed to the downward trend of the banking sector.

Six of the nine listed banks declined, including Vietcombank (VCB), Vietinbank (CTG) and Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Bank (SHB), which were down between 0.7 per cent and 2 per cent.

Steelmakers fell following the news that Australia had begun investigating galvanised steel products imported from some countries, including Việt Nam.

The two large-cap producers in the steel industry, Hòa Phát Group (HPG) and Hoa Sen Group (HSG), posted losses. HPG plunged 4.6 per cent and HSG plummeted 4.4 per cent.

Other blue chips that declined yesterday included dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), property developer Vingroup JSC (VIC) and consumer goods producer Masan Group (MSN).

Instead of large-cap stocks, speculative mid-cap and small-cap shares were attractive to investors yesterday, showing that “investors are rotating their portfolios to seek other options instead of drawing out of the market,” Bảo Việt Securities Co (BVSC) wrote in its daily report.

Those stocks, including real estate firm FLC Group (FLC), Ocean Group (OGC) and Tài Nguyên Corp (TNT) advanced on the change of the cash flow.

OGC jumped 4.6 per cent, TNT surged 6.9 per cent and FLC rose 1.1 per cent. FLC was the most active stock with more than 15 million shares being traded.

Investors yesterday traded nearly 174.3 million shares, worth nearly VNĐ2.8 trillion ($124 million), a decrease of more than 13 per cent from last week’s daily trading value. — VNS