Kathmandu, June 9:

After setting a new record on Wednesday, the stock trading this week closed at an all time high of 552.06 points, thanks to soaring share prices of commercial banks and the increased investors’ confidence.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index posted a an impressive growth of 14.32 points to close at 552.06 points, supported mainly by increasing prices of commercial banks. A bull trend at the country’s sole secondary market began last week with the Nepse rising by 16.46 points. Earlier the stock trading had crossed 550 points some six years back.

This week’s trading opened at 537.74 points on Sunday and advanced further throughout the week.

The Nepse floor opened for five days under a regular lot and the trading continuously moved upward with its index closing at 542.14 points on the second day, 544.14 points on the third day and 549.56 points the fourth day before the market closed at a historic 552.06 points on Thursday.

The weekly turnover also increased significantly this week to Rs 217.5 million with 500,285 unit shares having been traded through 1,933 transactions, against the last week’s figure of Rs 132.9 million through the trading of 295,052 shares. Out of the total 89 listed companies for share trading, 68 companies saw their transactions this week.

The group wise share trading analysis shows that all major groups including commercial banks and other group each registered an impressive growth. The hotel group is only the sole loser this week.

The commercial banks group, which is the largest scrip by volume, continued to climb higher and rose by 19.53 points. The group closed higher at 604.39 points from the opening 584.86 points. The group had an impressive gain of over 23 points last week.

Likewise, the others group also posted a healthy growth of 11.84 points, as its trading closed at 743.71 points from the opening 731.87 points on Sunday.

Among the gainers, the manufacturing group, too, managed a growth of 8.26 points. The group’s trading opened 331.23 points and closed higher at 339.49 points. The finance group posted 7.06 points growth, as it closed at 456.64 points. The group opened at 449.58 points on Sunday.

The development banks and insurance groups’ index rose to 487.13 points and 534.17 points from the opening 484.74 points and 533.56 points respectively.

The hotel group is a sole loser this week, as the group’s index dropped to 235.36 points on Thursday from the opening 238.31 points. The group had managed a marginal growth last week.

The trading group, meanwhile, remained constant at 155.21 points, as the group didn’t have a single transaction throughout the week.

Bank of Kathmandu topped all other companies having the largest monetary value from the shares traded for the week. The bank’s transaction stood at Rs 25,225,655, while Shikhar Insurance Company Ltd outshone others for the highest number of transaction with 363 transactions. But, National Hydropower Company Ltd stood first in terms biggest number of shares traded for the week. A total of 154,690 unit shares of the company exchanged hands at the Nepse floor.

The shares of Nabil Bank Ltd, Nepal Investment Bank, Himalayan Bank, Nepal SBI Bank, Nepal Bangladesh Bank, Everest Bank, Bank of Kathmandu, NIC Bank, Machhapuchhre Bank, Laxmi Bank, Kumari Bank, Lumbini Bank, NCC Bank and Siddhartha Bank were traded throughout the week. Other companies that saw their transaction over the week include National Hydropower, Chilime Hydropower, Shikhar Insurance, Kist Merchant Banking & Finance, Development Credit Bank Ltd, and Sanima Development Bank Ltd.