The value of share transactions executed on the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) hit a new high of Rs2.19 billion on Tuesday. This is the first time that the daily turnover in the secondary market has crossed the Rs2 billion mark. 

Likewise, the Nepse index reached a record 1,614.15 points. Continuing the bullish trend of the last few months, the stock market has been observing daily transactions of over Rs1 billion for the last 20 days. High demand for insurance and microfinance stocks in particular and excess liquidity with banks have been cited for the upswing in the market. On Tuesday, the insurance sub-index surged 112.53 points.

The rush to buy shares of insurance companies started after the Insurance Board instructed them to jack up their capital base. 

The board has asked life insurance companies to increase their capital base to Rs5 billion from Rs500 million and non-life insurance companies to Rs4 billion from Rs250 million. 

Similarly, the central bank has talked about increasing the capital base of microfinance companies through the monetary policy last year.

Promoters shares of Nepal Insurance Company witnessed the biggest transaction volume of Rs490 million. Bottlers Nepal (Tarai) with a jump of 240 points in its index was the top gainer. 

Meanwhile, market capitalisation reached Rs1,740 billion.