Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) last week inched up 7.31 points to close at 1,382.45, as fall in prices over the past few weeks spurred demand for stocks.

The secondary that market opened at 1,375.14 points on Monday plunged 65.44 points to close the day at 1,309.7 points. The market rose 16.9 points and 63.23 points, respectively, for the following two trading days before losing 7.38 points on Thursday. Overall, the Nepse index closed week 0.53 percent higher.

Satish Kumar Shrestha, managing director of Siprabi Securities, attributed the rise in the demand to investors getting back their money stuck in IPOs and FPOs. “Also, investors rushed to cash in on the plunge in stock prices,” he said.

The sensitive index that measures the performance of Group ‘A’ companies also rose 1.87 points to 300.35 points. The total value of shares listed on the exchange increased by Rs8.23 billion, with the market capitalisation reaching Rs1,555.48 billion from the previous week’s close of Rs1,547.25 billion.

The commercial bank sub-index posted highest gain of 24.69 points to close at 1,333.23 points. “As a number of banks are likely to issue rights and bonus shares in future, investors are rushing to buy shares of these financial institutions at a time when the prices have gone down,” Shrestha said.

The group representing manufacturing companies came second with a surge of 16.33 points in its sub-index, followed by development banks (up 11.85 points).

The insurance companies’ group (down 225.24 points) was last week’s top loser. It was followed by finance companies (down 16.79 points), hotels (down 6.97 points), others (down 6.08 points) and hydropower (down 3.02 points).

The trading group remained stable at 206.16 points.

Siddhartha Bank posted the largest transaction of Rs145.59 million. Shrestha said the bank’s announcement bonus and rights shares attracted the investors. Nepal Doorsanchar Company came second with a turnover of Rs103.02 million, followed by Nepal Life Insurance, Prabhu Bank and Sanima Bank.

NMB Sulav Investment Fund 1 led in terms of the number of shares traded (831,000 shares units).

Last week, shares of 156 listed companies were traded. Despite the rise in the Nepse index, the transaction amount fell 0.64 percent to Rs2.21 billion. The number of shares traded also declined to 5,905,580 units from 6,667,130 units.