Stocks ended marginally higher on Sunday as bargain hunters showed buying appetite on major sector issues amid withdrawal of floor price restriction of all listed companies.
The market opened on lower and the key index lost about 42 points within the first 10 minutes of trading. However, late hours buying spree on banking and financial institutions stocks helped the market to edge higher.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 16.65 points or 0.27 per cent to settle at 6,069, after ending almost flat in the previous session.
Two other indices also edged higher with the DSE 30 Index, comprising blue chips, advanced 10.23 points to finish at 2,207 and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) gained 5.66 points to close at 1,296.
The market-cap of DSE rose to Tk 5,099 billion on Sunday, touching the all-time high level, from Tk 5,081 billion in the previous session.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, remained below Tk 20 billion-mark and amounted to Tk 18.35 billion, which was 0.65 per cent lower than the previous day's tally of Tk 18.47 billion.
Market experts said stocks bounced back on gaining streak driven mainly by banking, non-bank financial institutions, pharma and power sector issues.
Banking sector showed robust performance, after three days correction, with a gain of 1.20 per cent, followed by financial institutions with 0.80 per cent.
Meanwhile, the country's stock market returned to standard price movement system, as the securities regulator lifted floor prices of all listed securities, set earlier to contain abnormal price fall amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Stockbrokers welcomed the floor price withdrawal decision, saying the decision was taken at the right time.
"The floor price disrupts the normal trading activities. So it has been reasonable to remove the floor price," said a leading broker.
After a bumpy movement of the index, the market closed with a positive index as stocks edged higher, commented LankaBangla Securities.
The investors' buoyancy in bank and financial institution sectors helped the benchmark index to remain in green, commented International Leasing Securities.
However, some investors booked some quick gain on general insurance, life insurance and telecom sector stocks, said the stockbroker.
Among other major sectors pharmaceuticals posted a 0.65 per cent gain followed by engineering with 0.53 per cent, power 0.52 per cent and food 0.36 per cent.
On the other hand, general insurance, life insurance and telecom sectors lost 2.20 per cent, 1.20 per cent and 0.20 per cent respectively.
Losers took a modest lead over the gainers, as out of 373 issues traded, 179 declined, 156 advanced and 38 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Pioneer Insurance topped the turnover chart with shares worth Tk 1.63 billion changing hands, closely followed by Beximco (Tk 1.51 billion), Orion Pharma (Tk 428 million), National Feed Mills ( 422 million) and Beximco Pharma (Tk 292 million).
National Feed Mills was the day's top gainer, posting a 9.97 per cent gain while Sea Pearl Beach was the worst loser, losing 9.98 per cent.
A total number of 247,385 trades were executed in the day's trading session with a trading volume of 435.32 million shares and mutual fund units.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also edged higher with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -gaining 12 points to settle at 17,583 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX rising 7.25 points to close at 10,583.
Of the issues traded, 151 declined, 117 advanced and 36 issues remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city's bourse traded 25.62 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover value of Tk 1.53 billion.
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