Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) last week gained 22.24 points to close at 1,127.77 points, after banks started reducing interest rate on loan. The average daily turnover also increased to Rs244.78 million from Rs199.85 million in the previous week.

The secondary market that opened at 1,105.53 points on Sunday slid 4.95 points to close at 1,100.58 points. Trading was closed on Monday to mark Mahashivaratri, a public holiday. When trading resumed on Tuesday, the market gained 2.06 points. The NEPSE index continued to track upwards, adding 9.12 points and 16.01 points on Wednesday and Thursday respectively. Eventually, the market increased by 2.01 percent in overall trading during the review period.

Stock analysts attributed the increased demand to a number of banks moving to reduce their interest rate. “In addition, majority of the listed firms announcing dividend to their shareholders might have created a positive vibe at the secondary market,” said a stockbroker under condition of maintaining anonymity.

According to NEPSE, 113 listed companies announced dividend worth Rs51.64 billion in total from their earnings in the last fiscal year.

Along with the NEPSE, the sensitive index that measures the performance of blue chips companies also inclined 4.92 points to close at 239.72 points after majority of the trading groups posted a gain in their indices.  

As a result, investors gained Rs26.22 billion from the market, as the market capitalisation increased to Rs1,377.40 billion from Rs1,351.18 billion.

Except for manufacturing and trading, the remaining nine trading groups’ indices picked up points. Life insurance gained the largest of 320.67 points to close at 5,903.76 points. Non-life insurance posted a gain of 148.09 points in its index.

Likewise, index of microfinance surged 39.34 points, hotels surged 34.49 points, development banks surged 25.41 points and hydropower surged 23.81 points. Commercial banks and finance companies gained 16.6 points and 11.37 points respectively. Index of ‘others’ rose marginally by 1.23 points.

Of the two losers, manufacturing observed a downfall of 9.85 points while the sub-index of trading shed 2.71 points.

Last week, stocks worth Rs979.14 million were transacted, which was 22.47 percent more than the transaction volume in the previous week. The total number of traded shares also increased to 3,601,234 units from 2,881,878 units during the review period.