Shares rebounded on both national stock exchanges on December 23 as official economic data showed signs of continuing recovery.

Although the gross domestic product (GDP) this year was announced to have 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 percent compared to last year, which is the lowest increase of the index in a decade. In addition, Vietnam saw a trade surplus of 863 million USD in 2013.

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 taking session, or 1.47 trillion VND (69.3 million USD), on a volume of 108.2 million shares.

The VN30, tracking the southern city'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 7 percent, while property giant Vingroup (VIC) rose 6 percent to reach 70,000 VND (3.3 USD) per share. Others to enjoy positive gains included steelmaker 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 gained almost 1.2 percent to reach 68.30 points. The HNX30, composed of the 30 largest stocks in terms of capitalisation and liquidity, also increased nearly 1.5 percent to end at 129.92 points.

The value of trades on the bourse, however, declined some 30 percent over the previous session to 441.8 billion VND (20.8 million USD), as more than 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