KATHMANDU: The stock market saw increasing interest in development banks and microfinance institutions, resulting in a 15.79-point, or 0.73 percent, gain in the overall NEPSE index, which closed at 2152 points on Tuesday. This upward trend was mostly led by large increases in the Development Bank and Microfinance indices, which rose by 2.4% and 3.0%, respectively. Trading volume also increased, with total turnover reaching Rs 5.53 billion, up from Rs 4.56 billion yesterday. 168 firms' prices grew, 68 fell, and 10 were steady.

A number of sectoral indexes on the stock market showed increases. Notably, Development Banks (by 109 points), Hydropower (by 13 points), Life Insurance (by 27 points), Microfinance (by 142 points), Non-Life Insurance (by 48 points), Banking (by 6 points), and Others (by 10 points). Whereas, there were decreases in Manufacturing (by 35 points), Trading (by 9 points), Hotels and Tourism (by 15 points), and Finance (by 3 points).

Several companies experienced significant stock price increases, including Ganapati Microfinance and Aatmanirbhar Microfinance, both rising by 10 percent. Other notable gainers included Buddha Bhumi Hydropower (up by 9.9 percent), Unique Nepal Microfinance (9.7 percent), Sabai Ko Microfinance (9.1 percent), Mahila Microfinance (8.8 percent), Support Microfinance (8.7 percent), and Jaalpa Microfinance (8.2 percent). 

On the downside, Nepal Finance's stock price fell by 4 percent, while Bottlers Nepal Balaju and Janaki Finance dropped by 3.9 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively. In terms of trading volume, the leading companies were NRN Infrastructure, Nepal Finance, Janaki Finance, Ngadi Group, and Global IME Microfinance.