tocks rallied for the third straight session yesterday driven mainly by banks that gained almost 4% after remaining under pressure for long.

The benchmark index DSEX gained 32 points or 0.7% to close at 4,648, which is one month high. Shariah Index DSES witnessed marginal fall of 3 points to 1,030. The blue-chip comprising DS30 edged 1.6 points up to 1,700.

Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Category Index, CSCX, closed at 8,942 with a gain of 62 points.

Banks – the largest cap sector – posted an impressive 3.7% gain featuring five of its issues in top gainers list. The sector rallied led by Mercantile Bank, Dhaka Bank, United Commercial Bank and Jamuna Bank.

“Financial sector, especially bank, came in frontline as lucrative valuation level and quarterly earnings expectation knocked investors’ sentiment very strongly,” said IDLC Investments in its daily market analysis.

“As a result, all the banks except three gained.”

After banks, ceramic came second that rose over 1%, followed by non-banking financial institutions and mutual fund that inched up.

Increased level of focus in banks pushed up trading activities. The total DSE turnover stood at Tk460 crore, an increase of 15.5% over the previous session, and banks accounted for nearly 19% over the previous session.

Profit booking took place on other sectors, including power, pharmaceuticals and food and allied. The market breadth was also positive as out of 290 issues traded, 168 advanced, 103 declined and 19 remained unchanged.

Lanka Bangla Securities said buoyant by the high level of trading volume in financial stocks, especially in banking stocks, market ended the day closed to more than one month high.

Zenith Investments said banks and financial sector made way for the market to set its gear and ride along towards the positive track.

It said stocks from other industries kneeled before the two sectors, hardly showing any performance to divert the attention of the investors.

Meghna Petroleum was the most traded stock of the session with almost Tk30 crore. It was followed by Lafarge Surma Cement, Heidelberg Cement, Square Pharmaceuticals, Padma Oil and Familytex.