Kathmandu, August 9

The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index surged by 23.05 points or 2.22 per cent today to end at 1,063.41 points after the political parties reached consensus on the demarcation of federal sates, which has guaranteed the delivery of the constitution soon.

Today’s bull run at the stock market was led by the banking sector. The banking subindex grew by 35.47 points or 3.74 per cent to rest at 984.38 points.

The banking sector’s stocks are being taken as lucrative investment after Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) recently issued a directive asking the banks and financial institutions to increase their paid-up capital by mid-July 2017.

“The central bank’s directive to the banks and financial institutions to submit their plans on how they are going to raise their paid-up capital by mid-September helped boost investor confidence,” said Prakash Rajouri, stock market analyst. “Moreover, investors have also been encouraged by the favourable political environment.”

The market had opened at 1,040.36 points today and ended at 1,063.41 points by the end of the trading day as all the subindices, except hydropower and finance, made gains.

Besides the banking sector, development banks subindex also increased by 1.39 points or 0.16 per cent to end at 855.37 points.

Likewise, the insurance sector subindex went up by 57.67 points or 1.29 per cent to 4,536.88 points. The manufacturing and hotel subindices also increased by 2.01 per cent and 0.06 per cent to end at 1,711.13 points and 1,865.27 points, respectively.

The others subgroup — that includes Nepal Telecom — went up by 0.81 per cent to rest at 728.4 points. However, subindices of finance and hydropower subgroups went down by 0.24 per cent and 1.1 per cent to end at 542.18 points and 2118.38 points, respectively.

The sensitive index, which measures the performance of blue chip stocks, surged by 2.58 per cent to 228.52 points. Likewise, the float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded, went up by 2.05 per cent to rest at 76.03 points.

A total of 1,110,805 units of shares of 138 companies worth Rs 645.15 million changed hands through 4,044 transactions today.