Stocks posted a marginal gain Monday, the opening day of April, as optimistic investors showed their buying appetite on large-cap shares.
Market analysts said some investors were active on Grameenphone (GP) and banking shares amid lucrative price level, taking the market in the green territory.
Dividend declaration by two companies -- Marico Bangladesh and Premier Bank also attracted some investors, said a leading broker.
Marico has declared 200 per cent interim cash dividend on the basis of audited financial statements for 11 months period and the Premier Bank recommended 15.50 per cent stock dividend.
The insurance sector passed a shining session as the sector gained 5.0 per cent with 43 insurance companies, out of 47, closed higher. The day's top ten gainer were also insurance companies.
The market opened on upward note and the positive trend sustain until end of the session with marginal volatility.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 11.17 points or 0.20 per cent to settle at 5,503.
The two other indices-the DS30 index and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) - saw marginal gain.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 4.42 points to finish at 1,971 and the DSE Shariah Index gained 2.21 points to close at 1,277.
Turnover, the crucial indicator of the market, crossed Tk 4.0 billion-mark after six sessions and amounted to Tk 4.24 billion, which was 17 per cent higher than the previous day's Tk 3.61 billion.
According to International Leasing Securities, the bargain hunters showed their buying interest, particularly on telecom, power, bank and general insurance stocks which helped the benchmark index closed green.
Telecommunication posted the highest gain of 1.97 per cent, followed by power with 0.43 per cent and banking 0.25 per cent.
On the other hand, pharmaceuticals witnessed the highest loss of 0.56 per cent, followed by engineering with 0.55 per cent, financial institutions 0.15 per cent and food 0.14 per cent.
A total number of 105,492 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 80.99 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE also increased to Tk 4,132 billion, from Tk 4,119 billion in the previous day.
The gainers took a marginal lead over the losers as out of 343 issues traded, 163 closed higher, 126 ended lower and 54 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
The top ten traded companies grabbed nearly 42 per cent of the day's total turnover with United Power topped the turnover chart with shares worth Tk 367 million changing hands, closely followed by BATBC, Grameenphone, Brac Bank and Monno Ceramic.
Janata Insurance was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 10 per cent while First Finance was the day's worst loser, losing 7.01 per cent.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange, ended higher with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - advancing 79 points to settle at 16,882 while the Selective Categories Index - CSCX, gaining 43 points to finish at 10,221.
Here too, the gainers beat the losers as 126 issues closed higher, 80 ended lower and 34 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse traded 4.30 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 167 million in turnover.
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