Stocks finished slightly higher on Tuesday after volatile trading as some investors showed their buying appetite, particularly banking and telecommunication shares.
Market analysts said investors were active on large-cap stocks on telecommunication, banking and power sectors, taking the market in the green territory.
The banking sector also rebounded gaining 0.70 per cent as prices of 18 banks closed green, out of 30.
The insurance sector faced correction, snapping the recent sharp gain, losing 2.90 per cent. Prices of 41 insurance companies fell out of 47.
Following the recent price surge, the prime bourse also served show-cause notices on 12 insurance companies. The companies separately informed the DSE Tuesday that there was no undisclosed price sensitive information for the recent unusual price hike of the shares.
The market opened on upward note and the key index rose about 40 points within first hour of trading. But rest of the session eroded most of the early.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,865, gaining 6.15 points or 0.10 per cent over the previous day.
International Leasing Securities the active presence of bargain hunters on the lucrative price level, particularly in telecom, power and bank sectors' stocks.
The stockbroker shaky investors booked profit on financial institution, insurance, textile, food and engineering issues.
The two other indices also edged up. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 4.40 points to finish at 2,026 and the DSES (Shariah) index gained 3.55 points to settle at 1,319.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, stood at Tk 8.90 billion, which was Tk 8.85 billion in the previous day.
A total number of 191,127 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 268.95 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE increased to Tk 4,158 billion which was Tk 4,152 billion in the previous day.
The losers, however, took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 346 issues traded, 224 closed lower, 95 ended higher and 27 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Premier Bank topped the turnover chart with 37.96 million shares worth Tk 607 million changing hands, followed by United Power, Square Pharmaceuticals, Dhaka Bank and Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company.
The newly listed SS Steel was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 9.83 per cent while Progressive Life Insurance was the day's worst loser, shedding 9.18 per cent.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange also ended marginally higher with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - gaining 26 points to settle at 18,007 while the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -advancing 14 points to finish at 10,878.
Here too, the losers beat the gainers as 155 issues closed lower, 97 higher and 16 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse traded 14.69 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 559 million in turnover.
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