UPDATE 1-Vietnam raises daily share trading band

(Recasts, adds SSC comment)

HANOI, April 3 (Reuters) - Vietnam will widen its intraday share trading band to 2 percent on its main stock exchange from 1 percent from Monday to increase liquidity after the restrictions helped stabilise the market, regulators said on Thursday.

The State Securities Commission (SSC) said in a statement on its Web site (www.ssc.gov.vn) that the band on the over-the-counter Hanoi Securities Trading Center would be raised to 3 percent from 2 percent also starting on Monday.

The market watchdog said it would "widen the band step by step in the coming time based on the increasingly stabilised market operations".

The current trading bands on the two markets were imposed on March 27 to help halt a slump in share prices.

"After some time of implementation, the solution has had a good impact on the market," the commission said.

The Vietnam Index .VNI gained 0.78 percent to close at 529.23 points on Thursday, before the market regulators' announcement, the seventh consecutive rise. The index has lost 43 percent so far this year.

The over-the-counter Hanoi Securities Trading Center .HASTCI ended 1.4 percent up to close at 190.32 points. (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; editing by Grant McCool and Jacqueline Wong)