Stocks extended the gaining spell for the second straight session on Sunday as bargain hunters continued to show their buying interest on sector-wise issues ahead of year-end.
The investors were active from the beginning of the session and the upward trend continued till the end of the session with no sign of reversal.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, went up by 15.10 points or 0.34 per cent to settle at 4,433 over the previous session.
Market analysts said lucrative price level of fundamentally sound stocks attracted bargain hunters, taking the market into the green zone.
A leading broker said investors showed their appetite on sector specific large-cap stocks, particularly from banking sector, as the year-end sale pressure eased to some extent.
Today (Monday) is the last trading session of 2019. Trading on the bourses will remained closed tomorrow (Tuesday) due to bank holiday.
Two other indices edged up with the DS30 index, comprising blue chips, gained 3.3.7 points to finish at 1,512 and the DSE Shariah Index advanced 2.18 points to close at 997.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, stood at Tk 3.0 billion, which was 1.63 per cent lower than the previous day's turnover of Tk 3.05 billion.
According to International Leasing Securities, positive momentum in some large-cap stocks, particularly from bank, financial institutions, pharma and food sectors created sound in the investors' temper.
Food sector booked the highest gain of 1.40 per cent, followed by banking with 0.71 per cent, engineering 0.54 per cent, financial institutions 0.34 per cent and pharmaceuticals 0.11 per cent.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange, also ended marginally higher with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -advancing 22 points to settle at 13,486 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -gaining 13 points to finish at 8,176.
Here too, the gainers beat the losers as 108 issues closed higher, 85 ended lower and 39 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse traded 6.84 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 201 million in turnover.
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