Stocks posted a marginal gain Sunday as some investors showed their buying appetite on sector specific issues.
However, trading activities dipped to a fresh two-and-a-half months low to Tk 4.62 billion as institutional investors followed 'go slow' strategy ahead of earnings and dividend declaration of financial sectors.
Market analysts said despite the banks got another six months to lower their advance-deposit-ratio (ADR), many investors followed cautious stance ahead of earnings and dividend declarations.
In a circular issued on Thursday last, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) extended the deadline to September 30 this year to adjust the ratio.
"The central bank's latest attempt to extend time for adjusting ADR ratio of the banks failed to attract investor's attention in the banking sector," commented International Leasing Securities.
The banking sector suffered 0.64 per cent loss with Dutch-Bangla Bank was the day's biggest loser, losing 7.86 per cent.
The market opened on positive note and the key index rose more than 40 points within first 30 minutes of trading. But rest of the session eroded half of the initial gains.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), crossed the 5,700-mark after four-day and settled at 5,710, advancing 21.60 points or 0.37 per cent.
Two other indices also ended higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 11 points to finish at 2001 and the DSE Shariah Index gained 8.0 points to close at 1,311.
A total number of 109,357 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 100.59 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE increased to Tk 4,151 billion on Sunday, from Tk 4,130 billion in the previous session.
Two major sectors - banking and telecommunication - lost 0.64 per cent and 0.15 per cent respectively.
Food and allied sector posted the highest gain of 4.19 per cent, followed by engineering with 0.88 per cent, power 0.70 per cent, pharmaceuticals 0.65 per cent and financial institutions 0.15 per cent.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) ended higher with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -advancing 81 points to settle at 17,477 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -gaining 50 points to finish at 10,588.
The gainers beat losers as 135 issues closed higher, 69 ended lower and 37 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 7.53 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 235 million in turnover.
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