Kathmandu, September 15

The buying pressure in the country’s only secondary market seen since Sunday helped the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index surge by 11.73 points or 0.98 per cent, today, to close at an all-time high of 1,205.84 points.

Today’s bull-run at the stock market was led by banking sector, as the sub-indices of development banks and commercial banks rose by 1.69 per cent to 957.66 points and 1.48 per cent to 1,146.3 points, respectively.

Banking sector stocks have been taken as a lucrative investment in the stock market after Nepal Rastra Bank raised paid-up capital requirement of commercial banks by four folds from the existing Rs two billion by mid-July, 2017. Banks have been told to submit their capital plan by September 17 this year.

Apart from the banking sector, hydropower, insurance and finance subgroups ended in the green zone today as their sub-indices went up by 1.41, 0.84 and 0.32 per cent to end at 2,127.68 points, 5,236.29 points and 559.76 points, respectively. However, manufacturing and production, hotels and others subgroups ended in the red zone as their sub-indices went down by 3.45, 0.31 and 0.9 per cent to land at 2,063.64 points, 1,911.72 points and 780.08 points, respectively.

The sensitive index, which measures performance of blue chip stocks, surged by 1.01 per cent to 260.67 points. Likewise, the float index that measures the actual shares traded, increased by 1.31 per cent to 85.97 points.

A total of 1.07 million units of shares of 144 companies worth Rs 639.24 million changed hands through 2,990 transactions today.Business Universal Development Bank, Infrastructure Development Bank, Laxmi Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha, Mount Makalu Development Bank and Swarojgar Laghu Bitta Bikas Bank were the top gainers, with their stock prices rising in a range of 9.9 per cent to 10 per cent.