The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) crossed the 2200 mark on Monday for the first time in the last seven and a half months. Backed by impressive growth in the demand for shares of the hydropower sector, the Nepse index closed at 2211.38 points on the second day of the trading week. The last time when the Nepse index was over 2200 points was on May 27, 2022. Crossing this level has been seen as 'psychologically important' for stock investors as many are hoping for a bull market rally in the coming days. On Monday, the Nepse posted a gain of 2.16 percent while daily turnover stood at Rs 5.31 billion. With the investors continuing buying of shares on the back of the Nepal Rastra Bank amending guidelines on working capital loans on Wednesday and hopes that banks will reduce interest rates for the month of Magh, the stock market ended the first trading day of the week with a gain of 46.76 points.

There has been an increment in the volume of traded shares in the past week. And, on Sunday, the number of traded shares increased by 16 percent compared to that of last Thursday. A total of 14.67 million shares were traded on Monday compared to 12.48 million shares of Sunday.

Except for hotel and tourism, all the other sub-indices turned green on Thursday with the hydropower sub-index recording the highest 4.94 percent gain. Ridi Power Company recorded the highest turnover of Rs 206.8 million while the shares of Ngadi Group Power Limited were the most traded. On Monday, seven hydropower companies' share prices hit the positive circuit after increasing by 10 percent while seven other hydropower companies' share prices rose by more than nine percent. The share price of Barun Hydropower Company, Khanikhola Hydropower Company, Chhyangdi Hydropower, Joshi Hydropower Development Company, Himalayan Urja Bikas Company, Union Hydropower Limited, and Singati Hydro Energy Limited increased by 10 percent hitting the circuit breaker. The confidence of stock investors returned after the new government assured that it would address problems in liquidity management and will work to bring down the persistently higher interest rates. With the liquidity in the banking sector gradually improving, stock investors said they are now getting phones from the banks and financial institutions (BFIs) requesting them to take margin loans. As per Nepal Rastra Bank data, the banking system currently has Rs 12 billion in excess liquidity which indicates. This indicates interest rates will come down in the coming days.