Stocks posted modest gain on Wednesday, after a single-day break, supported by institutional investors.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 13.76 points or 0.26 per cent to settle at 5,138.
Market analysts said bargain hunting share purchase coupled with institutional investors' support helped the market to close marginally higher.
They noted that the institutional investors came forward in recent times to support the market in line with Bangladesh Bank and securities regulator's verbal instructions.
However, a section of investors remained cautious amid ongoing earnings declarations as a number of companies disclosed poor quarterly earnings.
The central bank on Wednesday unveiled an accommodative but cautious monetary policy for this fiscal year (FY 2019-20) aiming to achieve maximum growth with curbing inflationary pressures on the economy.
Two other indices also closed slightly higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 0.99 point to finish at 1,827 and the DSES (Shariah) index gained 4.0 points to settle at 1,181.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, stood at Tk 4.47 billion, which was 4.0 per cent higher than the previous day's turnover of Tk 4.30 billion.
According to UCB Capital, the market ended marginally higher as some investors were active on sector specific shares based on earnings declarations.
Meanwhile, earnings per share (EPS) of Reckitt Benckiser grew by an impressive 81 per cent to Tk 21.82 in April-June 2019 quarter over the same quarter a year ago. Its share price soared 3.4 per cent to close at Tk 2,473.6 each on Wednesday.
A total number of 126,031 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 139.38 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE also rose to Tk 3,834 billion on Wednesday, from Tk 3,824 billion in the previous day.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 353 issues traded, 197 closed lower, 120 higher and 36 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Monno Ceramic topped the turnover chart with shares worth Tk161 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were Fortune Shoes, United Power, Bangladesh Shipping Corporation and Sinobangla Industries.
Monno Ceramic was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 9.93 per cent while Sunlife Insurance was the day's worst loser, slumping by 26.80 per cent following its no dividend declaration.
The port city bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange, also finished marginally higher with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - advancing 49 points to settle at 15,725 while the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -gaining 33 points to finish at 9,559.
Here too, the losers beat the gainers as 167 issues drifted lower, 96 nudged higher and 22 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse traded 7.22 million shares and mutual fund units worth nearly Tk 173 million in turnover.
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