Stocks posted a marginal gain last week that ended Thursday, after a single-week break, as investors took position on sector-specific large-cap stocks.
Dealers said the market closed positive amid increased turnover as optimistic investors showed their buying appetite on sector-wise stocks while cautious investors opted for booking profit ahead of Eid Festival.
There are only five trading sessions left before the start of the Eid-ul-Azha vacation. Trading on the bourses is scheduled to remain closed from September 1.
"The optimistic investors took position on engineering, pharmaceuticals, financial institutions, food & allied and banks issues while some investors sold shares to bag profit from telecommunication and power stocks, taking the market in positive territory," said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm.
He noted that the news of extending the share transactions from investors' accounts which were suffering from negative equity burden since the market crash in 2010-11 for another 16 months also attracted the investors.  
The week witnessed five trading sessions as usual. Of them, three session closed higher while two faced correction.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), which replaced the DGEN in four-and-a-half-year back, went up by 24.31 points or 0.41 per cent to settle at 5,885.
The two other indices — the DS30 index and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) - also followed the suit to close at 2,111 and 1,306 points, after advancing 2.25 points and 1.44 points respectively.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also finished higher with its Selective Categories Index, CSCX, gaining 34 points or 0.30 per cent to settle at 11,034 points.
International Leasing Securities, a stockbroker, said, "The market returned to the green after a single-week break as investors took fresh position on the lucrative price levels in different stocks that helped the bourse to close in green".
The total turnover for the week stood at Tk 41.64 billion on major bourse which was Tk 24.46 billion in the week before as last week saw five trading sessions instead of previous week's three.
The daily turnover averaged at Tk 8.33 billion, which was 2.13 per cent higher than the previous week's average of Tk 8.15 billion.
Engineering sector dominated the turnover chart, capturing 23 per cent of the week's total turnover, followed by banks with 16 per cent and pharmaceuticals 13 per cent.
LankaBangla Securities, a stockbroker, said, "Small cap sectors mostly drove market activity throughout the week with jute, IT, engineering and ceramic sectors gaining 10.10 per cent, 4.65 per cent, 2.63 per cent and 2.15 per cent respectively".
Among the large cap sectors, telecommunication and fuel & power lost 1.24 per cent and 0.71 per cent respectively, it said.
"Overall, investors are gearing up for the Eid festival coming up on September 2 and activity in the bourses has been driven by profit taking ahead of the festive period, particularly by retail investors," the stockbroker said.
The total market cap of the DSE remained almost unchanged to Tk 3,970 billion.
BBS Cables topped the week's turnover chart with shares of Tk 2.28 billion changing hands, closely followed by Bangladesh Building Systems with Tk 2.08 billion, LankaBangla Finance Tk 1.33 billion, Fortune Shoes Tk 886 million, and ACI Tk 799 million.
Monno Ceramics was the week's highest gainer, posting 42 per cent gain, while Sandhani Life Insurance Company was the worst loser, losing 18.31 per cent.
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Source: The Financial Express