KATHMANDU: The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index, which has been continuously declining for the last five trading days, has shown modest improvement today. Today, the NEPSE index increased by 6.54 points to stand at 2,683.86.

Today, 13.968 million shares of 299 companies were bought and sold 72,094 times, resulting in a transaction worth Rs 7.246 billion.

The development banking group increased by 2.37 percent, hydropower by 1.57 percent, investment by 0.48 percent, production and processing by 0.01 percent and mutual funds by 0.52 percent, while all other sub-indices decreased. Banking 0.20, Finance 0.29, Hotel and Tourism 0.47, Life Insurance 0.08, Microfinance 0.04, Non-Life Insurance 0.43, Trade 1.05 and Other Groups 0.01 percent decreased.

The share prices of Sikles Hydropower Limited, Bhagwati Hydropower Development Company Limited and Rasuwagadhi Hydropower Company Limited have entered a positive circuit today. Similarly, the share price of Bhugool Energy Development Company Limited has entered a negative circuit.

In terms of transaction amount, CEDB Holdings Limited has the highest transaction value today, worth Rs 368.182 million. In terms of number of shares traded, NIC Asia Growth Fund has the highest transaction value of 712,100 shares.