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Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– Bangladesh’s stocks ended marginally higher on Sunday, snapping a two-day slump, as bargain hunters showed their buying appetite on sector-specific shares.

DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 11.09 points or 0.23 per cent to settle at 4,782.

Despite the market edged up, most of the investors remained worried amid recent volatility in the market, according to experts.

They said the institutional investors are suffering from liquidity crunch while the retail investors are not confident enough to inject fresh funds into stocks, reflecting lower trading activities.

The enthusiastic investors were active on large-cap United Power, BATBC, Square Pharma, Grameenphone and LafargeHolcim stocks, contributing 22 points gain of DSEX jointly, they explained.

Two other indices also closed marginally higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, gained 6.93 points to finish at 1,685 and the DSE Shariah Index advanced 5.17 points to close at 1,099.

Among the major sectors, food sector posted the highest gain of 2.30 per cent, followed by power with 1.40 per cent, banking 0.40 per cent, pharma 0.40 per cent and telecom 0.20 per cent.

Only non-bank financial institution sector lost 0.30 per cent.

However, the losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 352 issues traded, 180 closed lower, 129 ended higher and 43 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.

National Tubes topped the turnover chart with 751,895 shares worth BDT144 million changing hands.

The other turnover leaders were Standard Ceramic, Monno Jute Stafflers and Summit Power.

A total number of 99,538 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 104.73 million securities.

On the other hand, the Chittagong Stock Exchange also edged up with its CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI –gaining 35 points to settle at 14,542 and the Selective Categories Index – CSCX –advancing 23 points to finish at 8,840.

BBN/SSR/AD