The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index gained 33.68 points or 1.71 per cent to resurface above the threshold of 2,000 points between March 5 and 9.

Although the market has been mostly southbound since the last week of February, the investors' sentiment has received some boost as the Nepal Bankers' Association (NBA) recently announced plans to reduce interest rates from mid-March. The decision was made to decrease premium on loans to provide some relief to borrowers of small loans.

The sensitive index, which measures the performance of class 'A' stocks, increased by 5.94 points or 1.59 per cent to 379.50 points in the review period. The float index that gauges the performances of shares actually traded also rose by 1.79 per cent to 140.78 points.

Altogether 12.45 million shares were traded during the review week through 93,407 transactions that amounted to Rs 4.16 billion. The weekly turnover decreased by over 50 per cent compared to the previous trading week, when 22.96 million shares had changed hands through 171,508 transactions that totalled Rs 8.43 billion. It may be noted that the market was open for only three days in the review week compared to normal five trading days in the previous week. Even so, the average turnover in the review week fell 17.72 per cent to Rs 1.39 billion against Rs 1.69 billion in the preceding week.

The benchmark index had opened at 1,969.02 points on Sunday and lost 30.77 points to 1,938.25 points by the time of closing. The market remained closed on Monday as the country celebrated the Holi festival.

On Tuesday, the benchmark gained 14.41 points to 1,952.66 points before surging by 50.04 points on Thursday to settle at 2,002.70 points for the week. The market had remained closed on Wednesday on the occasion of International Women's Day.

Apart from manufacturing and processing, which fell by 2.60 per cent or 122.05 points, the remaining sub-groups landed in the green this week.

Meanwhile, non-life insurance led the pack of gainers after surging by 3.14 per cent to 8,960.38 points; hydropower gained 3.10 per cent to 2,594.90 points; finance by 2.80 per cent to 1,699.79 points; development banks went up by 2.71 per cent to 3,652.86 per cent; investment jumped 2.65 per cent to 65.75 points and trading advanced by 2.45 per cent to 2,152.68 points.

Likewise, the life insurance subgroup rose by 1.87 per cent or 10,061.12 points; mutual funds inclined by 1.43 per cent to 14.21 points; banking gained 1.40 per cent to 1,315.37 points; microfinance went up by 1.05 per cent to 3,778.22 points; hotels and tourism by 0.98 per cent to 3,130.34 points; and others edged up by 0.94 per cent to 1,441.43 points.

A version of this article appears in the print on March 12, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.