Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: The Nepal Stock Exchange Limited (Nepse) witnessed a turbulent morning as the benchmark Nepse index encountered an impressive 6% surge, prompting a series of trading halts and ultimately leading to an early closure.
The benchmark index posted a growth of 6%, gaining 111.20 points on Sunday, the first trading day of the week.
The first circuit breaker was triggered just five minutes into trading, resulting in a 2-minute trading halt. When trading resumed at 11:25 am, another circuit breaker was triggered two minutes later, resulting in a trading halt for 40 minutes. Trading was possible for only two minutes after the market resumed, only to face the third and final circuit breaker, resulting in the closure of the trading session.
Although trading was possible for only nine minutes on the day, the bourse recorded a turnover of Rs 482.4 million and closed the day at 1,963.98 points.
This is the first time in two years that the positive circuit breakers were triggered on the bourse. The positive circuit breaker was last applied on December 14, 2021, when Nepse gained 137.18 points, or 6.01%. The market had a turnover of Rs 1.84 billion on that fateful day.
All the sub-indices ended the day in green, with the highest gain coming from the Hydropower sub-index, which was up by 8.63%. Next on the list were the Hotels & Tourism sub-index, which went up by 6.72 points, and the Development Bank and Finance sub-indices, which were up by 6.59 points each.
Share prices of only two companies declined, and one remained unchanged, while 227 companies advanced on the day. Mountain Energy Nepal Ltd logged the highest turnover of the day with shares worth Rs 35.82 million traded, followed by Sonapur Minerals and Oil Ltd and Nepal Insurance Company Ltd with turnovers of Rs 35.80 and Rs 21.83 million, respectively.
Shares worth Rs 482.48 million were traded on the bourse through 7,014 transactions. Market capitalization reached Rs 3.02 trillion.
