Stocks ended higher on Wednesday as optimistic investors showed their buying appetite on large-cap stocks, particularly power and banking issues.
Market insiders said most of the investors were buying shares on heavyweight sectors like banking and telecommunication, taking the prime index above 5,400-mark after seven sessions.
Meanwhile, the listed companies with low capitalisation continued to dominate the gainers' chart though they had no price sensitive information (PSI).
Bangladesh Finance was the day's top gainer, posting 10 per cent gain, closely followed Asia Pacific Insurance with 9.54 per cent, Midas Financing 9.36 per cent, Sonali Aansh 8.75 per cent and Rahim Textile 8.73 per cent.
The market opened on positive note and the upward trend sustained till end of the session with no sign of reversal.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), finally settled at 5,422, advancing 41.72 points or 0.77 per cent over the previous day.
"This upward shift in the index is mainly driven by significant positive changes in banking, financial institutions and power sectors' issues," commented LankaBangla Securities.
Two other indices also ended higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 6.79 points to close at 1,899 and the DSE Shariah Index gained 6.46 points to close at 1,247.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, also rose to Tk 5.63 billion, which was 15 per cent higher than the previous day's Tk 4.88 billion.
According to International Leasing Securities, buoyancy in some large-cap issues, mostly from power, banking and financial institutions, contributed to end higher.
The power sector posted the highest gain of 2.08 per cent, followed by banking with 1.88 per cent, financial institutions 1.85 per cent.
Engineering witnessed the highest loss of 0.35 per cent, followed by pharmaceuticals 0.14 per cent and telecommunication 0.07 per cent.
Of the 338 issues traded, 170 closed higher, 112 ended lower and 56 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 128,060 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 145.72 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE stood at Tk 3,895 billion on the day which was Tk 3,872 billion in the previous session.
Khulna Power Company dominated the turnover chart with 4.66 million shares worth Tk 557 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were United Power Generation & Distribution Company, IFAD Autos, Dragon Sweater and Active Fine Chemicals.
Western Marine Shipyard was the worst loser, losing 16.53 per cent following its price adjustment after record date.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended higher with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - advancing 84 points to settle at 16,670 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -gaining 54 points to finish at 10,097.
The gainers beat losers as 124 issues ended higher, 95 lower and 30 issues remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city's bourse traded 8.56 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 219 million in turnover.
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