Kathmandu, May 19 -- Nepal Stock Exchange last week surged by 26.75 points to close at 1,318.71 points as investors rushed to buy shares of commercial banks after an unaudited report showed that majority of commercial banks posted strong profits. Investors are speculating that these financial institutions will offer dividends based on their profits.

Along with the market index, the average daily turnover soared to Rs989.86 million over the last week, up from Rs693.62 million in the previous week.

The secondary market opened at 1,291.96 points on Sunday, gained 3.07 points to close at 1,295.03 points. The market successively went up by 6.31 points, 14.11 points and 5.55 points on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.

However, on T...