Kathmandu, Oct. 19 -- The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index rose by 16.67 points on Sunday, the last trading day before the Tihar holidays, closing at 2,503.85-an increase of 0.67 percent.

Despite the gain in the benchmark index, overall market turnover declined. The day recorded share transactions worth Rs2.79 billion, down from Rs3.27 billion on Thursday.

Out of the traded companies, share prices of 163 increased, 78 declined, and 8 remained unchanged. Except for development banks, mutual funds, and non-life insurance, all other sub-indices closed higher.

The banking sub-index rose by 0.87 percent, finance by 0.51 percent, hotels and tourism by 0.72 percent, hydropower by 0.70 percent, investment by 0.75 percent, and life insurance ...