The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index rose 6.89 points on Tuesday, the first day of trading after the week-long Dashain holiday, the biggest Hindu festival. 

A slight rise in demand for shares and few sell orders on account of the lingering festive mood has caused the country’s only secondary market index to rise slowly, said stockbrokers. 

Nepse opened at 1,556.35 points and dipped to a low of 1546.15 during the first hour of trading before taking an upward trajectory. Santosh Mainali, general secretary of the Stockbrokers’ Association of Nepal, said the market had been affected by low selling pressure as people were still apparently celebrating and had not returned to work. 

Despite the rise in Nepse, the secondary market witnessed a low transaction volume. As per Nepse records, the value of share transactions totalled Rs140 million with 269,776 shares changing hands. The figure is almost one-fifth of the usual daily turnover of Rs700-800 million seen before the Dashain festival. 

“Potential investors are still in a celebratory mood, and many of them are busy in household affairs resulting in a small trade volume,” Mainali said. 

Almost all the groups posted gains in their indices. The hydropower group made the highest gain of 63.84 points to close at 1,858.38 points. It was followed by hotels, insurance companies, commercial banks and trading. 

Nepal Investment Bank witnessed the largest trading of general shares worth Rs48.83 million, followed by its promoter shares. Citizen Investment Trust saw the second largest trading of shares. 

According to Mainali, investors were encouraged to buy Nepal Investment Bank stock as it has announced 15 percent bonus shares and 25 percent cash dividend to its shareholders. 

Similarly, Chilime Hydropower Company made the highest gain of 65 points. It was followed by Oriental Hotels and Prime Commercial Bank. 

Mainali expressed hope that the market would take an upward trend from next week. “As banks are likely to slash interest rates due to a rise in their stock of loanable funds, the secondary market could bounce back after the end of the first quarter of the current fiscal year,” he said.