Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) last week jumped 17.09 points, crossing the 1,300-point mark for the first time in its history.

The benchmark index that opened at 1,283.67 points on Sunday posted gains throughout the week before closing at 1,300.76 points on Thursday. The week’s biggest gain came on Wednesday, when the index rose 6.26 points.

Jivan Kumar Prasai, managing director of Sumeru Securities, attributed the rise to excess liquidity with banks, and good second-quarter results of most of the listed firms, and banks and financial institutions’ move to raise their capital by issuing bonus and right’s shares. 

“The demand for shares of commercial banks, insurance companies and microfinance companies was high last week,” he said, adding the market would grow further, given high market turnover. 

Bishnu Raj Ojha, managing director of Dipshikha Dhitopatra Karobar Company, said the Securities Board of Nepal’s move to discourage the practice of purchasing shares in others’ names also boosted investor confidence.

Prasai, however, suggested investors to be cautious. “As the market has risen for quite some time now, investors planning to put in money now have to assume high risk,” he said.

Of the nine trading groups, almost all posted gains. Insurance companies (up 118.01 points) was the top gainer, followed by development banks, finance companies, hotels, hydropower companies, others and commercial banks. 

Manufacturing and trading groups were stable at 1998.78 points and 201.38 points, respectively. The sensitive index that measures the performance of ‘A’ class companies was up 3.1 points to close at 280.74 points. The transaction volume, however, fell 1.39 percent to Rs2.79 billion, and the number of shares traded was down to 4,754,580 units from 8,010,240. Nepal Investment Bank posted the highest individual turnover of Rs192.8 million. 

It was followed by Rural Microfinance Development Center, Nepal Grameen Bikas Bank Shikhar Insurance and Nepal Investment Bank (promoter’s shares). Nabil Balanced Fund topped in terms of the number of shares traded (548,000 units). 

Meanwhile, the Nepse listed bonus shares of Sanima Bank, Kailash Bikas Bank, Pacific Development Bank, Unique Finance and Neco Insurance Company. It also registered 80,803 units of right’s shares of NB Insurance.