The last trading session of the outgoing calendar year edged higher on Monday as investors showed their appetite for selective large-cap stocks.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 18.98 points or 0.42 per cent to end the year at 4,452.
However, DSEX lost more than 933 points or 18 per cent in the outgoing calendar year.
Market operators said lucrative price level of fundamentally sound issues coupled with hopes for a better market in the New Year attracted some investors, taking the market in the green zone.
It was the last session as trading on the bourses will remain closed on Tuesday due to bank holiday.
The market sustained the gaining streak for the three consecutive sessions before year-end as the investors continued purchasing shares amid new hope in the New Year, a leading broker said.
The two other indices also inched up. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 1.01 points to finish at 1,513 and the DSES (Shariah) index gained 2.74 points to settle at 999.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, stood at Tk 3.18 billion, which was 6.0 per cent higher than the previous day's turnover of Tk 3.0 billion.
Stock kept gaining as investors' bargain hunting in hope of bagging profit at the beginning of next year in expectation of the market to make a turnaround as seen in historic trends, commented EBL Securities, in its regular market analysis.
The stockbroker noted that the banking sector witnessed notable interest from investors preceded by year-end earnings and dividend disclosure.
According to International Leasing Securities, the final hour buying pressure from the bargain hunters on bank, pharma, textile and IT sectors' stocks helped the index to close higher.
The banking sector booked the highest gain of 0.87 per cent, followed by pharmaceuticals with 0.61 per cent and financial institutions 0.13 per cent.
The power sector witnessed the highest loss of 0.58 per cent, followed by engineering with 0.34 per cent, food 0.06 per cent and telecom 0.04 per cent.
A total of 100,015 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 110.37 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of DSE increased to Tk 3,395 billion on Monday, from Tk 3,388 billion the previous day.
The gainers took a modest lead over the losers as out of 355 issues traded, 1554 closed higher, 142 ended lower and 59 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Khulna Power topped the day's turnover chart with shares worth Tk 136 million changing hands, closely followed by Brac Bank, National Life Insurance, Beacon Pharmaceuticals and Square Pharma.
Khulna Power was also the day's best performer, posting a gain of 8.85 per cent while Al-Haj Textile was the day's biggest loser, shedding 9.88 per cent.
The port city's bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also edged higher with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - gaining 19 points to settle at 13,505 while the Selective Categories Index - CSCX - advancing 11 points to finish the year at 81.87.
The losers, however, beat the gainers as 107 issues closed lower, 84 ended higher and 39 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse traded 6.65 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 188 million in turnover.
babulfexpress@gmail.com