The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index jumped by 50.18 points or 3.61 per cent today – the first trading day of the week – to close at 1,438.49 points. The country’s sole secondary market has moved closer towards the threshold of 1,450 points from where share market experts say that the index usually keeps rising till it reaches the 1600-point mark.

Similarly, the sensitive index, which measures the performance of class ‘A’ stocks, rose by 10.08 points or 3.43 per cent to 304.11 points. The float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded also went up by 3.93 points or 3.92 per cent to rest at 104.18 points.

“The share market has been witnessing a rise due to the positive balance sheets published by the listed companies which has created buying pressure in recent days,” said Uttam Aryal, chairman of Nepal Investors Association. “Also investors have already paid interests on bank loans last month and are now buying shares to make quick profits.”

“Share price of all the banks has gone down so investors are buying banking shares as it is a lucrative sector and investors believe banking shares will rise in the long term,” added Aryal.

All the 10 subgroups in Nepse witnessed gains today with three subgroups increasing by more than five per cent and four subgroups going up by over three per cent. The microfinance sub-index saw the highest gain today. It surged by 100.23 points or 5.89 per cent to land at 1,801.68 points. Likewise, hydropower gained 89.88 points or 5.26 per cent to rest at 1,799.07 points. The insurance subgroup went up by 352.99 points or 5.03 per cent to end the day at 7,366.32 points.

Meanwhile, development bank subgroup rose by 61.66 points or 3.79 per cent to 1,689.37 points. It was followed by finance sub-index which saw an increment of 23.14 points or 3.37 per cent to rest at 709.63 points. Banking – the subgroup with the highest weightage in the country’s only secondary market – saw a gain of 39.31 points or 3.26 per cent to land at 1,244.98 points. Hotels subgroup rose by 65.2 points or 3.14 per cent to 2,144.74 points.

Also, manufacturing and others subgroup increased by above one per cent. Manufacturing rose by 40.38 points or 1.71 per cent to land at 2,403.55 points and others sub-index inched up by 12.57 points or 1.62 per cent to rest at 789.8 points.

Altogether, 2.88 million shares of 167 companies that amounted to Rs 1.23 billion were traded through 12,548 transactions today.

According to The Himalayan Times, share value of Arun Kabeli Power, NMB Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha, Rastriya Beema Company Ltd and Rastriya Beema Company Ltd (Promoter Share) soared by 10 per cent to Rs 330, Rs 1,700, Rs 13,915 and Rs 13,469, respectively, today. Likewise, National Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha, Siddhartha Insurance, Womi Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha, Central Finance, Kabeli Bikas Bank and Api Power Company also saw their share price rise by over nine per cent.

Among the top losers today were Ridi Hydropower Development Company, which was down by 3.35 per cent to Rs 144 and Ngadi Group Power, which dropped by 3.12 per cent to Rs 217.