BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The Shanghai Composite Index moved downward slightly to close at 3,183.98 points on Friday, down 0.42 percent from the previous close.

    The component index of the smaller Shenzhen Stock Exchange fell0.35percent to finish at 8,549.20.

    The two bourses' combined transaction volume stood at 127.9 billion yuan (16.6 billion U.S. dollars), shrinking 78.9 billion yuan (10.2 billion U.S. dollars) from the 206.8 billion yuan (26.9 billion U.S. dollars) for the previous trading day.

    Analysts said the slightly decline of the index, which covers both A- and B-shares, came amid heavyweights such as bank shares which led the market for the previous day losing their position.

    They attributed the decline to traders who take a wait-and-see attitude on the last trading day of this week, also the end of the quarter and predicate the index will continue to vibrate in the short term.

    The Shanghai A-share Index lost 14.47 points to close at 3,346.35 points, while the B-share Index gained 1.04 points to finish at 177.80.