Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index went up by 113.42 points on Sunday as investors responded positively to the Monetary Policy for Fiscal Year 2024/25. The index breached the psychological 2,700-point mart during the session but eventually closed 4.41% higher at 2,681.56 points.
The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) unveiled the monetary policy on Friday, which, among others, abolished the maximum limit on share collateral loans for institutional investors. Before this, institutional investors could avail of a maximum of Rs 200 million in margin loans.
Such was the demand for stocks that circuit breakers were clamped twice during the session. The first circuit breaker was enforced within 1 minute and 33 seconds of trading after the benchmark index went up by 4%. Trading resumed after 20 minutes, but the second circuit breaker was soon clamped after the index went up by 5%.
After trading resumed after 40 minutes, the market erased some gains but logged gains toward the close to eventually end the session 4.41% higher.
Share prices of 148 companies advanced on the day, while 87 declined, and eight remained unchanged. Share prices of 12 companies, including 10 commercial banks, hit the positive circuit of 10% during the session. Kumari Bank Ltd logged the highest turnover of the session with shares worth Rs 361 million traded. Next were NIC Asia Bank and Himalayan Reinsurance Ltd, with turnovers of Rs 348.16 million and Rs 322.59 million, respectively.
Among trading groups, Banking recorded the highest gain of 9.89%. Next were Investment and Development Bank groups with gains of 5.75% and 4.87%, respectively.
Shares worth Rs 15.81 billion were traded on the bourse through 163,810 transactions.
