Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: Investors welcomed the sweeping electoral victory of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) as the stock market surged sharply on Monday, forcing trading on the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) to halt after the index hit its maximum positive circuit limit.
The benchmark Nepse index jumped 6% within minutes of market opening, triggering a series of circuit breakers and ultimately leading to a full-day trading closure.
Trading lasted only 1 minute and 10 seconds in the initial session before the index surged by 4%. This prompted a 20-minute trading halt as per the exchange’s circuit breaker rules.
When the market resumed at 11:21 am, the index crossed the 5% threshold within 20 seconds, which led to another suspension of 40 minutes.
Although trading restarted at 12:01 pm, the rally continued, and the index hit the 6% percent upper circuit within about 25 seconds. This led to the suspension of training for the remainder of the day.
The market closed at 2,875.43 points, registering a sharp gain of 162.93 points.
Analysts say the investors put their money into the stock market in anticipation of political stability, with RSP already securing a clear majority.
Despite the small trading windows, Rs 555.96 million worth of shares were traded on the bourse through 4,051 transactions.
The rally also marked the first time in nearly two years that the market hit a positive circuit breaker. Earlier on March 4, 2024, the Nepse index gained about 117.7 points, or 6%, leading to trading suspension for the remainder of the day.
Unit prices of two scrips hit the positive circuit of 10%, while prices of 26 others went up by more than 9%.
All sectoral indices ended the session in the green. The biggest gain came from the Trading sub-index, which was up by 7.73%. Next were Investment and Banking sub-indices with gains of 7.06% and 6.92%, respectively.
