Shares climbed towards the end of the May 20 session on both national stock exchanges amid investor optimism over positive outcomes from the Government report at the National Assembly meeting which opened that morning in Ha Noi.

"Investors expected to hear new boosting measures to accelerate the recovery of the economy which was dragged by huge inventories, shrinking domestic consumption and frozen property market among others," analysts of the FPT Securities Co commented on the company's website.

The fifth meeting of the 13th National Assembly will discuss hot topics including domestic economics, politics and upcoming law changes.

On the HCM City Stock Exchange, the VN-Index added 0.96 percent to finish the session at 492.27 points, led by large-cap shares.

Nineteen of the top 30 shares by market capitalisation and liquidity advanced while only two codes sank, pushing the VN30 up 0.95 percent to 558.79 points.

Trading volume was little changed from May 17, totalling around 49 million shares, worth 854.4 billion VND (40.7 million USD).

Thirteen codes saw trades of more than 1 million shares, of which property developer Tan Tao Investment Industry (ITA) led the market with 3.2 million stocks changing hands. ITA rose 1.5 percent to hit VND 6,800 a share.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index climbed 0.98 percent to close on 61.04 points with risers outnumbering fallers by 102-65.

Trading was modest, however, as just under 30 million shares, worth 254.3 billion VND (12.1 million USD), were exchanged by the end of the session.

The market was still dominated by trading on three speculative shares: PetroVietnam Construction (PVX), Sai Gon-Hanoi Bank (SHB) and real estate company Sacomreal (SCR), with each having more than 4 million shares traded.

PVX, the most active code on trades of 4.72 million shares, closed unchanged at 5,200 VND a share, while SHB and SCR increased 2.9 percent and 4 percent respectively, at around 7,000-7,700 VND a share.

Foreign investors also finished on May 20 as net buyers on both exchanges, picking up shares worth a combined 64 billion VND (3 million USD).-VNA