Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) hit its fresh all-time high of 1,219.62 points on Sunday.

The rise has been attributed to the latest amendment to the Constitution, short supply of shares with some companies failing to timely dematerialise their share certificates and availability of easy loans due to excess liquidity in the banking system.

The market that opened at 1,212.26 points reached 1219.76 points in mid-day trading before closing the day 7.3 points higher.

Narendra Raj Sijapati, managing director of Kalika Securities, said the Constitution amendment helped boost investor confidence. “Besides, the short supply of shares amid high demand also resulted in the price rise,” he said.

The market has been on an upward trajectory ever since the market regulator made demat stare trading mandatory for all listed companies last week.

According to CDS and Clearing, 170 out of 239 listed firms have dematerialised their share certificates. “Many companies are still in process of dematerialising their shares, while 69 of them have not even started to do so and have been barred from carrying out transaction,” said Rajan Lamsal, a member of Nepal Investors’ Forum. “This resulted in short supply of shares.”

He said more investors were getting attracted towards the stock market due to the fall in interest rates on bank deposits and lack of alternative investment areas.

On Sunday, almost all the trading groups posted gains. Hotels (up 36.49 points) was the top gainer, followed by development banks (up 24.69 points) and insurance companies (up 12.25 points).

The overall market turnover stood at Rs541.70 million, while the market capitalisation reached 1,312.84 billion.

Laxmi Bank posted the highest individual turnover of Rs33.98 million. Nepal Investment Bank (promoter’s shares), Sanima Bank, Everest Bank and Citizen Investment Trust rounded out the top five companies in terms of transactions.