Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) last week jumped 47.62 points to close at 1,343.85 points, as investors rushed to buy shares at a time when prices were at their 11-month low.

The previous week, the Nepse index had fallen 86.22 points to close below the 1,300-point mark.

The market that opened at 1,296.23 points on Sunday plunged 43.73 points to close at 1,252.5 points. It gained 26.48 points on Monday to close at 1,278.98 points, before losing 4.01 points on Tuesday.

The index, however, added 41.83 points and 27.05 points on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, closing the week 3.67 percent higher.

“Investors were lured by cheaper share prices” said Ram Chandra Bhattarai, managing director of Aryatara Investment & Securities. “Also, the investor confidence got a major boost by rising market,” said Bhattarai, adding many investors had been expecting the market to fall below 1,200 points.

Bhattarai attributed the rise to “positive environment” created by the government’s commitment to conducting local-level elections within the time frame prescribed in the Constitution.

The sensitive index that measures the performance of Group A companies also rose 11.06 points to 292.52 points. With the surge in the Nepse index, the total value of shares listed on the exchange rose by Rs55.71 billion, as the market capitalisation reached Rs1,514.14 billion from Rs1,458.43 billion over the week.

Of the nine trading groups, insurance posted the biggest rise of 428.99 points to close at 5,809.86 points. “As the insurance sub-index has been falling for quite some time, investors rushed to purchase the shares,” Bhattarai said.  

The hotels group stood second, gaining 108.2 points, followed by commercial banks (up 46.61 points), development banks (up 42.48 points), hydropower companies (up 23.79 points), finance companies (up 6.62 points), and others (up 4.63 points). The manufacturing sector was the sole loser as its sub-index shed 16.66 points. The trading remained stable at 206.16 points.

Prabhu Bank posted the largest transaction of Rs129.12 million. “It normal for a company, whose share trading has been resumed after a long gap, to witness high transaction amount,” Bhattarai added. 

Prabhu’s share trading resumed a few weeks ago after the completion of the merger process.

Nepal Bangladesh Bank came second realising a transaction of Rs117.39 million. Bank of Kathmandu Lumbini, National Life Insurance and Nepal Life Insurance rounded out the top five.

Laxmi Value Fund 1 took the pole in terms of the number of shares traded (912,000 units).

Last week, shares of 155 listed companies were traded. 

The overall market transaction went up 48.38 percent to Rs2.58 billion, but the number shares traded dropped to7,907,720 units from 18,881,020 units.

Right Shares/Bonus Shares

Company                                       Type               Units

Ace Development Bank                  Bonus             2,031,741

Shikhar Insurance Company            Bonus            3,077,710

Siddhartha Insurance                      Bonus            1,034,550

Miteri Development Bank                Bonus            633,821.76

Swarojgar Laghubitta Bikas Bank    Bonus            163,187.20

Miteri Development Bank                Right             1,056,369.60