Shares extended rallies on both bourses on April 3 but draining liquidity remained a big concern for investors.

On the HCM City Stock Exchange, the VN-Index inched up 0.18 percent to close at 547.85 points as the advancers slightly edged the decliners 111-96 while other 101 stocks went flat.

Purchasing power was weak, pushing the market volume down another 10 percent compared with April 2's level, totaling nearly 71 million shares, while the value of trades dropped 20 percent to reach 1.05 trillion VND (49.1 million USD).

FLC Group (FLC), a member of the VN30 basket, was the most active code with 12.6 million shares, traded at the unchanged price of 10,600 VND (0.50 USD) a share.

Money continued to flow into blue chips with good fundamentals.

Biggest gainers included PetroVietnam Drilling and Wells Service Corp (PVD) with a rise of 2.5 percent in value, followed by steelmaker Hoa Phat Group (HPG), up 1.8 percent and PV Gas (GAS), up 1.6 percent.

The VN30, which tracks the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity, increased 0.27 percent to end at 577.66 points.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, recovery of blue chips also helped lifted the HNX-Index by 0.41 percent to close at 81.93 points.

Large-cap stocks like Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Sai Gon Thuong Tin Real Estate Co (SCR) and PetroVietnam Technical Services Corp (PVS) led the uptrend.

Liquidity continued to slide here as just 30 million shares worth 382.6 billion VND (17.8 million USD) were traded by the end of the session.

F.I.T Investment Co (FIT) remained the most active code with the trading of 3.7 million shares, jumping 1.2 percent to settle at 17,200 VND (0.80 USD) each.

Foreign investors increased their buys in the HCM City market, responsible for a net buy value of 54.2 billion VND (2.5 million USD), but they turned to conclude as net sellers on the Hanoi exchange, unloading shares worth 9.5 billion VND (444,000 USD).-VNA