DHAKA, Aug 2: Dhaka stocks rallied for the second consecutive session on Saturday after a long slide as textile and banking shares gained, brokers said.

The Dhaka Stock Exchange General Index (DGEN) rose 0.41 per cent or 3.32 points, to 803.30. Gainers led losers 86 to 38 and 40 stocks were unchanged, the DSE said in a statement.

“Most shares which fell to lower levels recently, continued to attract buyers,” said Imtiyaz Husain of brokers Imtiyaz Husain and Company.

Shares had fallen for 10 sessions until Wednesday as most investors freed up funds to buy into the initial public offerings of four private banks.

Mr Husein said the investors had picked up stocks which distributed higher dividend in the past years.

But he said the market was still rattled by the protracted slide and most investors stayed on the sidelines.

Leading textile firm, Squar Textiles, rose 1.26 per cent to 31.20 taka on 82,100 shares valued at 2.57 million taka.

Mutual Trust Bank Limited gained 0.46 percent to 160.75 taka on 16,050 shares worth 2.58 million taka.

Saturday’s overall turnover totalled 37.73 million taka against 38.69 million taka on Thursday, ahead of the Friday local weekend.

Some 1.51 million shares changed hands on Saturday against 1.89 million in the previous session.

RESERVES: Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves fell to $2.36 billion in July from a seven-year high of $2.47 billion in the previous month, central bank officials said on Saturday.

The reserves declined after the government made a regular payment to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) last month, a central bank official said. The ACU is a club of eight Asian nations set up to help foreign-exchange scarce countries.—Reuters