As the share prices of companies with strong fundamentals continued to rise the general index rose to 1015.968 points yesterday with a further increase of 18.838 points from Thursday's index.

The market is now rising steadily after an abnormal surge in prices of weak securities, which prompted the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to suspend trading of 16 Z category shares on Wednesday.

A capital market analyst said investors are now gaining confidence and buying shares of good companies instead of securities with weak fundamentals.

Appreciating the SEC action against Z category companies he said the move has saved the stock market from another possible scam like that of 1996. He smelt an 'ill motive' to push up share prices of weak companies.

About the increase in the prices of good companies' shares he said: "As many companies with good track records are going to hold annual general meetings in December, investors are rushing to buy these securities."

Most of the good securities gained yesterday. One Bank made an encouraging debut on the DSE as its Tk-100 shares were sold at Tk 213 each. Shares worth over Tk 40 million of the bank were transacted yesterday.

The DSE-20 Selective Price Index for blue chip shares gained 17.19 points to 1334.55 from Thursday's 1317.36 points. The DSE Weighted Average Share Price Index was 0.38 points up to reach 824.39 points.

A total of 5,782,003 shares worth Tk 264.57 million were traded on the DSE yesterday compared with Thursday's 6,010,971 shares worth Tk 198.33 million.

The CSE-30 Selective Price Index for blue chips was 40.65 points higher to reach 1643.61 yesterday against previous day's 1602.96. The CSE Trade Volume Weighted Index went up 0.24 points to 1841.61.

A total of 4,589,820 shares worth Tk 227.41 million were traded on the CSE yesterday as against Thursday's 3,866,452 shares worth Tk 74.42 million.