Kathmandu, February 6 The stock market bull raged throughout the trading week of January 31 to February 4, with the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index breaching all past records in the last four trading days to record a week-on-week gain of 35.31 points or 2.9 per cent. Starting the week at 1,216.11 points on Sunday, the benchmark index rose 4.59 points by day’s closing. On Monday, Nepse surged by 17.32 points — the highest gain in the week — to record a fresh high of 1238.02 points. The local bourse continued northbound, but the rise was relatively muted on Tuesday and Wednesday — 2.05 points and 2.06 points, respectively. On Thursday, Nepse added another 9.29 points to breach the threshold of 1,250 to record a fresh all-time high of 1,251.42 points. Investors have flocked to the stock market in recent days due to lack of other profitable investment avenues, and implementation of electronic transaction in trading which has facilitated traders, along with positive political developments. Altogether, 4.47 million shares of 128 companies worth Rs 2.80 billion were traded through 13,922 transactions in the review period. The traded amount was 28.21 per cent higher than the preceding week when 10,509 transactions of 3.44 million scrips of 120 firms worth Rs 2.19 billion had been undertaken. The sensitive index, which gauges performance of class ‘A’ stocks, rose 3.03 per cent to 269.52 points. Similarly, the float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded also went up 2.81 per cent to 89.65 points. Among the subgroups, trading held steady at 201.38 points, while hotels was the only subgroup to land in the red, dipping 0.05 per cent to 1,771.43 points weighed down by Oriental Hotels losing Rs 11 to land at Rs 459. Development banks led the market rally in review period, surging by an impressive 6.92 per cent to 1,294.06 points. Nerude rose by Rs 228 to Rs 2,370, Swabalamban by Rs 225 to Rs 2,290, and Chhimek by Rs 180 to Rs 1,985. Unilever Nepal’s share value soared by Rs 1,558 to Rs 27,037, which in turn pulled the manufacturing subgroup up 4.39 per cent to 1,922.86 points. Banking, the subgroup with majority stake in market capitalisation of Nepse, advanced 2.8 per cent to 1,137.52 points. Standard Chartered rose by Rs 85 to Rs 2,735, Everest by Rs 25 to Rs 2,340 and Nepal Investment by Rs 85 to Rs 872. Finance added 2.7 per cent to 601.63 points. Citizen Investment Trust was up Rs 45 to Rs 4,355, and Reliance Lotus up Rs 58 to Rs 231, among others. Hydropower more than recovered the previous week’s dip of 0.49 per cent by rising 1.75 per cent to 2,179.06 points. Chilime gained six rupees to Rs 1,290, Ridi surged by Rs 79 to Rs 427, Api rose by Rs 19 to Rs 449, and Sanima Mai was up Rs 12 to Rs 875. After falling 0.73 per cent in the past week, others subgroup rebounded with an ascent of 1.62 per cent to 811.8 points due to Nepal Telecom’s share value rising by Rs 11 to Rs 691. Insurance also recovered the preceding week’s loss of 0.52 per cent by edging up 1.06 per cent to 5,466.46 points. National Life Insurance gained Rs 55 to Rs 2,640 and Shikhar rose by Rs 53 to Rs 1,533. However, some of the gains of the subgroup was offset by Nepal Life Insurance down Rs 62 to Rs 3,210 and Life Insurance Co Nepal down five rupees to Rs 3,505. Nepal Investment Bank topped the chart in terms of turnover with Rs 151.45 million. It was followed by Nepal Investment Bank (Promoter Share) with Rs 145.93 million, Nabil Bank (Promoter Share) with Rs 132 million, Sanima Bank with Rs 106.74 million and Global IME Bank with Rs 99.75 million. Nabil Balanced Fund-I was the forerunner in terms of shares traded with 328,000 of its scrips changing hands. Meanwhile, Nepal Investment Bank also topped the chart in terms of transactions with 658 deals.