Shares rebounded on both national stock exchanges on December 23 asofficial economic data showed signs of continuing recovery.
Although the gross domestic product (GDP) this year was announced tohave increased 5.42 percent, which is below the target of 5.5 percent,but it was higher than last year's figure.
Meanwhile, the nation's consumer price index (CPI) rose 6.04 percentcompared to last year, which is the lowest increase of the index in adecade. In addition, Vietnam saw a trade surplus of 863 million USD in2013.
The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange added 0.84 percent to finish at 508.68 points.
Trading value reached nearly one-half of the December 20 profit takingsession, or 1.47 trillion VND (69.3 million USD), on a volume of 108.2million shares.
The VN30, tracking the southerncity's top shares, earned 0.95 percent to advance to 565.98 points.Among the 30 blue chips, gainers overwhelmed losers 19-9.
Becamex Infrastructure (IJC) hit its daily increase limit of 7percent, while property giant Vingroup (VIC) rose 6 percent to reach70,000 VND (3.3 USD) per share. Others to enjoy positive gains includedsteelmaker Hoa Phat (HPG), up 2.3 percent, logistic company Gemadept(GMD), up 4.5 percent, and rubber firm Casumina (CSM), up 3.2 percent.
On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index gainedalmost 1.2 percent to reach 68.30 points. The HNX30, composed of the 30largest stocks in terms of capitalisation and liquidity, also increasednearly 1.5 percent to end at 129.92 points.
Thevalue of trades on the bourse, however, declined some 30 percent overthe previous session to 441.8 billion VND (20.8 million USD), as morethan 48 million shares were traded.
Foreign investors bought a net of 62.3 billion VND (2.9 million USD) after being net sellers on December 20.-VNA