The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) surged 18.08 points to close at 1,137.03 points last week.

The secondary market that opened at 1,118.95 points on Sunday surged for two successive days, including the biggest rise of 12.57 points on Monday, before dipping by 4.84 points on Wednesday. The market, however, regained 3.69 points on Thursday.

Stockbrokers attributed a number of factors for the stock market growth, including the easing of the Indian blockade, mergers of a number of financial institutions, companies offering bonus and right shares.

 Narendra Raj Sijapati, managing director of Kalika Securities, said the merger of Bank of Kathmandu and Lumbini Bank, and annoucement of dividend by a number of banks, including NIC Asia, made the commercial banks’ stocks a big draw. “The rise in demand has led to the market growth,” he said. Managing director of Bhrikuti Stock Broking Company Bijay Ranabhat noted the easing of India’s unofficial blockade along with an improvement in trading software for the growth. “A recent introduction of a Nepse software has also raised the investors’ interest in the secondary market,” he said. The password-enabled new software allows the investors to view the buying and selling orders. Four out of six major trading groups, including commercial banks, development banks, finance and insurance companies, witnessed an increase their indices last week. At 199.83 points, insurance companies topped the gainers’ list, followed by commercial banks, development banks and finance companies. Sijapati said the rumour that the regulator would be increasing the paid up capital of insurance companies had pushed up the group’s index.

The hotel group was the biggest loser, losing 103.97 points, followed by hydropower. The sensitive index that measures the performance of ‘A’ class companies also gained 3.5 points to close at 243.96 points. Along with Nepse, the transaction volume increased by 17.89 percent to Rs2.24 billion. The number of traded shares also increased to 3,483,379 from 3,330,440 units. Ranabhat said most of the investors are in a position to hold the stocks they already owned. “As well as dividend offers from many companies, the regulators’ move to increase the capital base has fueled demands for stocks,” he added.