The core index of the prime bourse on Tuesday hit fresh nine months high, as investors showed their buying appetite on financial issues.
Market analysts said investors were active on both sides of trading fence, taking the market turnover above Tk 11 billion-mark for the second day in a row.
The local and foreign investors were active on the trading floor as they continued to pour money anew into stocks amid growing confidence, said a leading broker.
He, however, noted that rising trend of junk stocks is a matter of concern and investors should be careful.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 27.04 points or 0.46 per cent to settle at 5,863. It was the highest level of DSEX since April 09, last year.
According to IDLC Securities, the day's rise was driven by financial and pharmaceutical companies and top three positive index contributors were Square Pharmaceuticals, Dhaka Bank and Delta Life Insurance.
The two other indices also edged higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 3.07 points to finish at 2,029 and the DSES (Shariah) index gained 4.03 points to settle at 1,330.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, remained high as the total turnover amounting to Tk 11.39 billion, which was Tk 11.46 billion in the previous day.
The bargain hunters took position on the lucrative price level, particularly in financial institutions, bank and power sectors, helping the index to close higher, commented International Leasing Securities.
The financial institutions posted the highest gain of 1.70 per cent, followed by power with 0.60 per cent, engineering 0.59 per cent, pharmaceuticals 0.45 per cent and banking 0.39 per cent.
A total number of 231,775 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 290.81 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE increased to Tk 4,141 billion which was Tk 4,132 billion in the previous day.
The gainers took a modest lead over the losers as out of 344 issues traded, 159 closed higher, 147 ended lower and 38 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange also ended higher with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - gaining 73 points to settle at 17,957 while the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -advancing 46 points to finish at 10,847.
Here too, the gainers beat the losers as 131 issues closed higher, 119 ended higher and 27 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse traded 14.72 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 415 million in turnover.
[email protected]
