Kathmandu-The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index rose 19.27 points to 2,674.20 points on the first trading day of the week.

341 companies’ shares were bought and sold, with 13,193,462 shares changing hands worth Rs 5.64 billion.

The Sensitive Index increased by 0.70 points, the Float Index by 0.69 points, and the Sensitive Float Index by 0.61 points.

Salapa Bikas Bank and Reliance Spinning Mills saw share prices rise over 9 percent.

Radhi Bidyut Company recorded the highest transaction value of Rs 323.6 million.

All sector indices moved up, with the Finance subgroup gaining 2.22 percent.

Share trading is expected to resume only on Sunday, Falgun 17, and Tuesday, Falgun 19, due to public holidays from the following Monday.

Analysts say the market hasn’t risen strongly due to investor uncertainty about the election result. They expect the market’s direction to clarify after the new government and finance minister are appointed.

Despite improvements in the economy, including increased foreign exchange reserves, a strong balance of payments, and remittance inflows, the market hasn’t shown the expected improvement despite gaining 12.83 points last week.

It had declined by 28.91 points in the previous week when trading was limited to two days.