A slump in the fortunes of oil and gas companies following the OPEC's forecast of lower oil demand for next year and further decline in global oil prices once again dragged the stock market down on December 11.

PV Gas (GAS), PetroVietnam Technical Services (PVS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Wells Service (PVD) and PetroVietnam Drilling Mud Co (PVC) slipped between 4–6 percent.

"Late rally in December 10’s session did not repeat on December 11 as buying power waned under rising investor cautiousness. Oil price plunges hit stocks again," Nguyen Viet Hung, a Hanoi-based independent analyst, said.

On the HCM City Stock Exchange, the VN-Index lost over 7 points, or 1.27 percent, at the end of the session, recording a six-month low of 550.11 points.

Losses extended to blue chips, which caused a 0.98 percent decrease of the VN30. This tracked the top 30 shares based on market value and liquidity.

The market condition was negative with 147 codes tumbling, 70 rising and 90 going flat.

Liquidity continued to slide with the market volume down 20 per cent from the previous session, totaling 96 million shares, while the value of trades dropped 10 percent to reach 1.674 trillion VND (78.6 million USD).

Ocean Group remained the most active stock by the end of the session, having traded 9 million shares. The share price rose 2.5 percent to end at 8,200 VND a share.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also tumbled 0.96 percent to finish at 84.40 points as the decliners were almost double than the number of advancers.

The trading volume here also reduced 20 percent compared with December 10’s figure, reaching 41.3 million shares, worth nearly 714 billion VND (33.5 million USD).

KLF Joint Venture Global Investment Co was the most heavily-traded stock with 7.6 million shares, but its price plunged 3.08 percent and closed at 12,600 VND per share.

Foreign investors continued to offload shares on the two markets, but the value of net sell dropped substantially to nearly 28 billion VND (1.3 million USD) worth of shares.-VNA