Hanoi (VNA)ꦕ - Vietnamese shares fell on both local exchanges for a second day on January 8 as sharp volatility in Chinese stocks unnerved investors.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange dropped 0.9 percent to close at 560.05 points, extending its loss to 2.5 percent in the past two days. The southern index fell 3.3 percent last week. The HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange fell 1 percent to finish at 76.41 points, marking a two-day decline of 2.9 percent. The northern index lost 4.4 percent last week. Local investors fear that a declining Chinese stock market and yuan will put downward pressure on the Vietnamese dong and hurt their investments in Vietnam's stocks. Financial stocks continued to suffer from foreign selling. The banking sector index dropped 1.4 percent and the brokerage sector index fell 1.9 percent. The biggest decliners in these two sectors included the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), which declined by 2.6 percent, Vietinbank (CTG), which fell 2.2 percent, broker Sai Gon Securities Incorporate (SSI), which was down 2.5 percent, and HCM Securities Corporation (HCM), which lost 3 percent. Other big stocks that also declined and pulled the market down included dairy company Vinamilk (VNM), which was down 1.6 percent, food and beverage producer Masan Group (MSN), which lost 1.3 percent, and software provider FPT Corporation (FPT), which decreased by 1.5 percent. Energy stocks fell despite a 1.9 percent increase in US benchmark crude West Texas Intermediate (WTI) to 33.91 USD a barrel on January 8 from an eleven-year low. Crude dropped about 8.5 percent last week. Declining energy stocks included PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corporation (PVD), which went down 0.4 percent, and PetroVietnam Mud Drilling Corporation (PVC), which was down 0.7 percent. The stock markets traded more than 192.4 million shares, worth 2.4 trillion VND (106 million USD), a decrease of 15 percent from the trading value recorded on January 7.-VNA