Stocks rebounded on Monday, snapping a three-day losing streak, as bargain hunters went on buying binge on large-cap issues.
Market analysts said investors were active in the market throughout the session riding on the news of soaring foreign funds in the market.
Net foreign fund in stocks turned around in January after remaining negative in the past three months as overseas investors were putting fresh funds after the elections.
The market opened on positive note and the key index rose about 54 points in the mid-session. But rest of the session eroded half of the gains.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,828, gaining 26.73 points or 0.46 per cent after losing 123 points in the past three days.
According to EBL Securities, the optimistic investors opted to take fresh position on large-cap stocks, taking the market in the green territory after three days.
IDLC Securities said top three positive index contributors were Power Grid Company, Titas Gas and GP- gaining 8.03 per cent, 5.18 per cent and 2.03 per cent respectively.
The two other indices also ended higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 14.36 points to finish at 2,018 and the DSES (Shariah) index rose 7.85 points to settle at 1,319.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, stood at Tk 8.89 billion, which was 9.70 per cent lower than the previous day's turnover of Tk 9.84 billion.
Trading activities declined 9.70 per cent over the last session, which indicates that some investors were staying on the sidelines, said International Leasing Securities.
The large-cap sectors showed positive performance with power recorded the highest gain of 2.51 per cent, followed by telecommunication with 1.77 per cent, engineering 0.99 per cent, banking 0.47 per cent, pharmaceuticals 0.14 per cent and financial institutions 0.14 per cent.
A total number of 185,889 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 202.91 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE increased to Tk 4,183 billion which was Tk 4,156 billion in the previous day.
The losers, however, took a marginal lead over the gainers as out of 347 issues traded, 155 closed lower, 150 ended higher and 42 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
United Power topped the turnover chart with 1.49 million shares worth Tk 600 million changing hands, followed by Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company, Khulna Power, Singer BD and Meghna Petroleum.
Power Grid Company was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 8.03 per cent while Asia Insurance was the day's worst loser, shedding 10 per cent.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange also ended higher with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - gaining 74 points to settle at 17,856 while the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -advancing 44 points to finish at 10,799.
Here too, the losers beat the gainers as 127 issues closed lower, 117 higher and 28 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse traded 10.25 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 289 million in turnover.
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