Continuing its rally, Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) last week jumped 11.49 points to hit yet another record high of 1,318.03 points.

Stockbrokers attributed the growth to investors’ rising attraction towards insurance companies and microfinance. “Nepal Rastra Bank’s announcement to raise microfinance’s capital requirement fourfold boosted investor confidence,” said Narendra Raj Sijapati, managing director of Kalika Securities.

Satish Shrestha, managing director of Siprabi Securities, shared a similar view. “Insurance Board has long been considering increasing paid-up capital requirement for insurance companies,” he said.

Four out of nine trading groups posted gains. Insurance companies (up 185.95 points) topped the gainers’ side, followed by hydropower companies, development banks, hotels and commercial banks. 

Finance companies and others lost 8.48 points and 2.35 points, respectively. 

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 rose 1.95 points to 283.6 points.

In the two-trading-day week, the transaction amount stood at Rs1.74 billion, down 37.24 percent compared to the previous week’s figure. The number of traded shares came down to 2,939,650 units from 4,754,580.

Neco Insurance posted the highest individual turnover of Rs137.6 million topped. Siddhartha Insurance, United Insurance, National Life Insurance and Agriculture Development Bank rounded out the top five companies in terms of turnover.