Stocks closed higher on Monday as some investors remained active in making bets ahead of the announcement of the monetary policy statement.
Market analysts said some institutional investors continued to buy shares while some others realigned their portfolios in view of the ongoing earnings declarations.
The Bangladesh Bank is set to unveil its first half-yearly (H1) monetary policy for the current fiscal year (FY) 2019-20 on Wednesday, with the policy rates likely to remain unchanged.
The monetary instrument is also expected to continue its policy support for the country's moribund stock market.
The recent regulatory interventions to support the market also prompted some investors to inject fresh funds into the market, said a leading broker.
However, a section of investors remained cautious during the earnings season as a number of companies reported poor quarterly earnings, he said.
On the day, the market opened on a positive note and the key index rose about 35 points during mid-session. But rest of the session eroded some of the gains.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,160, advancing 26.81 points or 0.52 per cent over the previous day.
UCB Capital said the market closed green as investors remain optimistic ahead of monetary policy statement for the current fiscal year.
Two other indices also edged higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, gained 4.75 points to reach at 1,844 points and the DSE Shariah Index rose 10.04 points to stand at 1,186.
The turnover stood at Tk 4.38 billion, which was 7.88 per cent higher than the previous day's turnover of Tk 4.06 billion.
The investors' activity was mostly focused on pharmaceuticals, grabbing 15 per cent of the day's total turnover, followed by general insurance (12 per cent) and engineering (11 per cent).
International Leasing Securities said the investors reshuffled their portfolios based on the expectation of upcoming quarterly earnings and year-end declarations.
The stockbroker noted that engineering, telecom, pharma and financial institutions sector stocks attracted the investors most.
The engineering posted the highest gain of 2.81 per cent, followed by telecommunications (0.97 per cent), pharmaceuticals (0.61 per cent) and non-bank financial institutions (0.25 per cent).
The power posted the highest loss of 0.70 per cent, followed by banking (0.67 per cent) and food (0.45 per cent).
A total of 133,481 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume standing at 144.55 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market cap of the DSE also increased to Tk 3,861 billion from Tk 3,847 billion in the previous day.
The gainers took a strong lead over the losers, as out of 353 issues traded, 242 closed higher, 93 ended lower and 18 issues remained unchanged.
The port city bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange, also ended higher with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - advancing 78 points to settle at 15,794 while the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -gaining 47 points to finish at 9,598.
Here too, the gainers beat the losers as 179 issues ended higher, 75 lower and 22 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse traded 8.08 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 204 million in turnover.
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