THE Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) recorded a double-digit gain of 10.45 points last week to close at 521.60 points on Thursday. The market had opened at

511.15 points on Sunday. The benchmark index surged 7.18 points on the Monday—the final day of the last fiscal year, but plunged 8.97 points on the first day of 2013-14. Stockbrokers attributed the fluctuation to the beginning of the new fiscal year and the budget announcement. The secondary market, however, adopted an upward trend on Wednesday and Thursday. On the last trading day, the market rose 9.92 points — the highest singleday gain in the last three months. Anjan Raj Poudel, former president of Nepal Stockbrokers’ Association, said the growth was due to commercial banks’ initiation to provide margin loans. “Banks that had stopped providing margin loans by the end of last fiscal year have resumed it with the beginning of the new fiscal year,” he said. “Investors’ expectation dividend announcement also helped increase stocks’ demand.” Of the nine trading groups, six posted gains over the week. Hydropower companies’ group was last week’s biggest gainer — up 47.84 points. Poudel said increasing attraction of institutional investors towards hydropower stocks could have helped boost the group. Insurance Companies and Commercial Banks also saw double-digit growth in respective indices. ‘Others’ and Finance Companies were the losers, while the trading group was stable at 169.36 points. The sensitive index that measures transaction of ‘A’ category companies rose 2.71 points to close at 131.06 points. Among individual companies, Everest Bank topped the charts in terms of transaction amount (Rs 279.37 million). Chilime Hydropower Company, Nepal Investment Bank, Nabil Bank and Nepal Bangladesh were among the top five companies in terms of transaction worth. Nabil Balance Fund topped in terms of the number of shares traded (248,732 units). Despite the surge in the Nepse index, the market, however, recorded an 11.89 percent fall in the overall transaction amount. The turnover last week stood at Rs 393.5 million from the trading of 1,269,584 shares. The figure was Rs 446.6 million in the previous week. ‘A’ category companies’ turnover was at Rs 232.5 million — 54.27 percent of the total transaction. Meanwhile, Nepse registered 200,000 units of bonus shares of Excel Development Bank last week.