The rally now follows the last year September's record high levels. Nepse had peaked at 1,205.88 points on September 15 last year and later started falling due to unrest in Tarai and the subsequent economic blockade by India triggered by constitution promulgation.
"Despite a serious crisis in Tarai and problems around the whole country in recent months, the stock market did not bear much brunt. The recent problems drove down the market. However, it did not take much time to recover," Anjan Raj Poudyal, former president of Stock Brokers Association of Nepal (SBAN), says.
"A number of factors are contributing to the current market rally, including Beema Samiti's preparations to raise the paid-up capital floor for the insurance companies. The liquidity surplus in the market is driving down the interest rate while the money stuck in initial public offerings (IPOs) of some hydropower companies have returned back to the stock market after IPO allotments," he adds.
Many brokers also see plans for full-fledged implementation of dematerialized forms of securities trading helping lift the market.
"With the demat share-trading system coming into implementation from Sunday, there is a possibility of supply constraints on shares as many investors are yet to open demat accounts for the trading shares," Poudyal says.
The indices of most of the trading groups ended up this week. The HydroPower group led the gains with its index jumping 134.14 points to settle at 2,164.29 points. The Insurance group followed suit with its index rising 48.58 points to close at 5,375.74 points. The index of the Development Banks group went up 35.88 points to finish at 1,140.18 points. The Banking group, the heavyweight trading group, also ended 26.52 points higher at 1,080.42 points. The Finance and the Hotels groups also registered gains of 9.83 points and 3.96 points, respectively, ending at 585.64 points and 1,726.79 points. The index of the Trading group inched up 2.53 points to close at 201.38 points. The Others group and the Manufacturing and processing group, however, shed 25.84 points and 5.61 points, respectively, ending at 787.13 points and 1,843.1 points.
A total of 5.12 million units of shares of 161 companies worth Rs 2.45 billion were traded at the market this week through 27,374 transactions.
Related story
Nepse marginally lower in week after last session recovery
