Stocks ended marginally higher on Sunday, snapping a two-day losing streak, as bargain hunters showed their buying appetite on sector-specific shares.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 11.09 points or 0.23 per cent to settle at 4,782, after losing 50 points in the last two consecutive sessions.
Market analysts said despite the market edged up, most of the investors remained worried amid recent volatility in the market.
They said the institutional investors are suffering from liquidity crunch while the retail investors are not confident enough to inject fresh funds into stocks, reflecting lower trading activities.
However, a leading broker said, the bargain hunters took position on the lucrative price levels in different stocks in the middle of the session, taking the market in positive territory.
He noted that the enthusiastic investors were active on large-cap United Power, BATBC, Square Pharma, Grameenphone and LafargeHolcim stocks, contributing 22 points gain of DSEX jointly.
Two other indices also ended slightly higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, gained 6.93 points to finish at 1,685 and the DSE Shariah Index advanced 5.17 points to close at 1,099.
Total turnover remained almost flat over the last session as the investors adopted 'wait-and-see' stance, said International Leasing Securities.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, stood at Tk 3.12 billion which was Tk 3.13 billion in the previous session.
According to EBL Securities, the recent price correction tempted the bargain hunters to take position on lucrative price level, particularly in food and power stocks.
Among the major sectors, food sector posted the highest gain of 2.30 per cent, followed by power with 1.40 per cent, banking 0.40 per cent, pharma 0.40 per cent and telecom 0.20 per cent.
Only non-bank financial institution sector lost 0.30 per cent.
However, the losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 352 issues traded, 180 closed lower, 129 ended higher and 43 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
National Tubes topped the turnover chart with 751,895 shares worth Tk 144 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were Standard Ceramic, Monno Jute Stafflers and Summit Power.
A total number of 99,538 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 104.73 million securities.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange, also edged up with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -gaining 35 points to settle at 14,542 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -advancing 23 points to finish at 8,840.
Here too, the losers beat gainers, as 115 issues closed lower, 104 ended higher and 29 remained unchanged on the CSE trading floor.
The port city bourse traded 42.62 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 516 million in turnover.
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