Stocks finished marginally higher on Sunday as some investors were active on sector-wise stocks in the last trading session of July-September quarter.
Analysts said that although the market edged up, investors mostly remained cautious amid rising political tension ahead of the national election.
The investors were also eyeing on the BNP's rally during the trading hours. The BNP rolled out a seven-point charter at their rally, including demand for Khaleda Zia's unconditional release on the top of their agenda.
Meanwhile, the turnover on the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) on Sunday stood at Tk 3.27 billion, hitting eight years high since October 28 in 2010, riding on block transaction.
It was also the second highest turnover in its history after highest turnover of Tk 3.40 billion recorded on October 28 in 2010.
A total of 21 companies accounted for Tk 3.13 billion in block trade to the total turnover on CSE, where stocks like Square Pharma, Grameenphone, United Power, Khulna Power and Brac Bank dominated the block trading board.
Square Pharma accounted for Tk 648 million, Grameenphone Tk 486 million, United Power Tk 361 million, Khulna Power Tk 294 million and Brac Bank Tk 250 million block trades on the port city's bourse.
A CSE official said some institutional investors executed block transactions to adjust their portfolios as the July-September quarter ended.
The market witnessed volatility in the first half of the trading session, but in the later half went up steadily.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 26.06 points or 0.48 per cent to settle at 5,368.
According to International Leasing Securities, the opportunist investors took position on the lucrative price levels in power, textile, telecom and banking sector stocks which helped the benchmark index to close in green.
However, some other investors reshuffled their investment in life insurance, IT, services and financial institution sectors ahead of quarter-end earnings disclosures and year-end dividend declarations, said the stockbroker.
Two other indices also finished marginally higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 4.87 points to close at 1,889 and the DSE Shariah Index rose 9.05 points to finish at 1,239.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, came down to Tk 5.16 billion, falling 1.71 per cent over the previous day's turnover of Tk 5.25 billion.
Among the major sectors, power posted the highest gain of 2.13 per cent, followed by telecommunication with 0.64 per cent, banking 0.61 per cent, pharmaceuticals 0.17 per cent and engineering 0.11 per cent.
The non-bank financial institutions and food & allied sectors lost 0.57 per cent and 0.34 per cent respectively.
Of the 336 issues traded, 187 closed higher, 95 ended lower and 54 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 110,685 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 110.80 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE stood at Tk 3,876 billion on the day which was Tk 3,859 billion in the previous session.
United Power Generation & Distribution Company dominated the turnover chart for the second day in a row with 1.36 million shares worth Tk 449 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were Khulna Power Company, IFAD Autos, Monno Ceramic Industries and Active Fine Chemicals.
Al-Haj Textile was the best performer, posting a gain of 9.98 per cent while Intech was the worst loser, losing 9.48 per cent.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended marginally higher with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - advancing 42 points to settle at 16,483 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -gaining 25 points to finish at 9,984.
The gainers took a modest lead over the losers as 119 issues closed higher, 81 ended lower and 32 issues remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city's bourse traded 43.75 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 3.27 billion in turnover.
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