Kathmandu: Nepal’s stock market closed higher on Wednesday continuing the gains it saw a day earlier on Tuesday. This is the second day in a row the NEPSE index has risen, now that the usual slowdown tied to the end of the fiscal year has passed.

The NEPSE index gained 14.00 points to close at 2590.29. The Sensitive Index rose 2.59 points, the Float Index added 1.07 points, and the Sensitive Float Index went up 0.99 points.

Even though the index climbed, total trading value fell. On Tuesday, shares worth Rs 8.41 billion changed hands.

On Wednesday, that dropped to Rs 4.17 billion and a bit, specifically Rs 4,170,398,000 across 38,836 transactions involving 362 stocks and 84,73,000 shares. The drop mainly came from lower trading in debentures compared to recent days.

Top gainers and losers

NMB’s 10.75% debenture (2089/90) saw the biggest price jump of the day, up 9.20%. Narayani Development Bank’s share price rose nearly 8.5% while Three Star Hydropower gained about 6.5%.

On the losing side, Upakar Laghubitta Financial Institution’s share price dropped the most, down 7.32%.

Biggest traded debentures

By trading value, Himalayan Bank’s 10% debenture (2083) led the pack with Rs 441 million worth traded. RBBL’s 7% debenture (2088) followed with over Rs 330 million in trades and NIC Asia’s 10.25% debenture (2083/84) saw around Rs 220 million traded.

Sector performance

Out of 13 sub groups, 11 closed higher and just one closed lower. The development bank sub group led the gains, up 1.37%, followed by the non life insurance sub group which rose more than 1%. The investment sub group slipped slightly while the mutual fund sub group ended flat.