Stocks in Bangladesh maintained their upward trend for the second consecutive day today, as investors were optimistic following the National Board of Revenue's tax cut on capital gains for individual investors.

The DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), edged up 112.52 points, or 2.14 percent from the previous day before closing at 5,365.

Similarly, DSES, the index that represents the Shariah-compliant companies, went up by 29.18 points, or 2.51 percent, to 1,191, while the DS30 index for the blue-chip firms grew by 30.17 points, or 1.56 percent, to 1,967.

The shares of different companies like Islami Bank Bangladesh, Square Pharmaceuticals, Renata, Beacon Pharmaceuticals, Best Holdings, BRAC Bank, Beximco Pharmaceuticals, City Bank, United Commercial Bank and IFIC Bank performed well.

Islami Bank Bangladesh alone posted a gain of 37.65 points, the highest among the pullers.

BAT Bangladesh, Olympic Industries, Taufika Foods and Lovello Ice-cream PLC, Kohinoor Chemicals, Orion Infusions, Khan Brothers PP Woven Bag Industries, Confidence Cement, Navana Pharma, Robi Axiata and Sonali Paper and Board Mills suffered losses, according to the daily market update by LankaBangla Securities Portal.

Positive sentiment dominated the market as 304 stocks advanced, 65 declined and the remaining 24 did not see any price movement.

Turnover, which is a measure of the total value of shares traded on the DSE floor, increased by 48.56 percent to Tk 840 crore, the highest in two months.

The pharmaceuticals sector dominated the turnover chart, accounting for 21.33 percent of the total.

Block trades, which refer to the high-volume transactions in securities that are privately negotiated and executed outside of the open market, contributed 2.5 percent of the overall market turnover.

Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd emerged as the most traded share with shares worth Tk 33.2 crore changing hands.

Life insurance, ceramics, and general insurance were the top three sectors that closed on a positive note, as per the daily market update by UCB Stock Brokerage.

However, the food & allied, jute and the non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) became the three sectors that closed in the negative today.

Most of the sectors that account for large-cap companies posted positive performance today, BRAC EPL Stock Brokerage said in its daily market update.

The banking sector experienced the largest gain of 3.11 percent, followed by the fuel & power 2.41 percent, engineering 2.24 percent, pharmaceuticals 1.66 percent, and telecommunication 0.28 percent.

However, the food & allied sector logged a loss of 0.26 percent and the NBFIs sector 0.43 percent.

At the port city bourse, the CSE All-share Price Index, the key index of the Chattogram Stock Exchange, plunged by 291.61 points, or 2.0 percent, to settle at 14,876.