Stocks plunged further on December 8 afternoon on both exchanges, driven by steep declines of oil and gas shares.

On the Hochiminh Stock Exchange, the VN-Index lost over 7 points or 1.22 percent to close the session at 571.68 points. Meanwhile, the HNX-Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange slipped 1.64 percent to end at 87.17 points.

Oil and gas stocks continued their downward spiral despite positive news like the 11th straight reduction in retail petrol prices.

In HCM City, PV Gas (GAS), the biggest stock in term of market share, fell 5,500 VND a share or 6.36 percent to finish the session at 81,000 VND (3.80 USD).

Blue chip like PetroVietnam Drilling and Wells Service Corp (PVD) dropped to the floor price of 69,500 VND a share (3.26 USD).

Even small- and mid-cap shares like Petroleum Pipeline and Tank Construction (PXT), Petroleum Equipment Assembly & Metal Structure (PXS), IDICO - Petroleum Trading Construction Investment (PXL) and Petroleum Industrial & Civil Construction (PXI) all plummeted around the floor price.

Petrol also slumped in Hanoi, with PetroVietnam Technical Services Corp (PVS) down 8.11 percent and PetroVietnam Drilling Mud Co (PVC) down 9.32 percent.

Liquidity improved over last week. Market value climbed 20 percent in HCM City, totaling nearly 2.28 trillion VND (107 million USD) while this figure jumped 40 percent in the Hanoi market to 1.26 trillion VND (59.2 million USD).

According to analysts at FPT Securities Co, the current market condition is not in favour of speculation as declining shares still overwhelmed rising stocks.

"Money flow is shifting to some real estate and banking shares but even these groups saw modest increases that cannot spread to other stocks in the market," they wrote in a note.

Foreign investors also unloaded local shares on December 8, responsible for a combined net sell value of 11.25 billion VND (528,000 USD) on the two exchanges.-VNA