The bull run witnessed in the country’s only secondary
market since the past two months continued in the trading week of August
9 to 14, driving up the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index to close at
nearly a seven-year high of 1,088.42 points. The benchmark index soared
by 48.06 points or 4.62 per cent week-on-week to breach the previous
high of 1,083.55 points that was recorded on July 21, last year.Investor optimism following the central bank’s latest monetary policy requiring financial institutions to increase their paid-up capital has been further boosted by the positive development at the political front.
Consequently, starting the week at the previous week’s close of 1,040.36 points, the benchmark index surged by 23.05 points by the day’s closing on Sunday. The Nepse index ascended by another 17.95 points on Monday, but shed 3.58 points and 0.59 points on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, due to profit-booking. However, the local bourse more than regained all the loss on Thursday by climbing 11.23 points. The last time Nepse had closed at the current level was on August 26, 2008, when it had rested at 1,087.80 points.
All in all, 5.56 million units of shares of 168 companies worth Rs 3.18 billion were traded at Nepse during the trading week through 21,487 transactions. The traded amount was 28.55 per cent higher than the preceding week when 17,482 transactions of 4.84 million scrips of 172 firms worth Rs 2.48 billion had been undertaken.
The sensitive index, which gauges the performance of class ‘A’ stocks, rose by 12.03 points to 234.81 points. Similarly, the float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded also added 2.96 points to land at 77.46 points during the review period.
While trading remained constant at 212.92 points, hydropower and finance were the only two subgroups to record losses.
The bull run in the stock market can be attributed to the massive demand for stocks of commercial banks as the banking subgroup has the highest stake in Nepse’s market capitalisation. The banking sub-index increased by 72.43 points to 1,021.34 points. Nabil Bank’s stocks closed at Rs 2,500 (up Rs 200), Standard Chartered’s at Rs 2,730 (up Rs 402), and Nepal Investment Bank’s at Rs 1,000 (up Rs 199), among others.
Meanwhile, similar to the previous week, insurance was the top gainer in the week, surging by 130.46 points to 4,609.67 points. Share value of National Life Insurance soared by Rs 115 to Rs 2,130 and that of Life Insurance Co Nepal by Rs 162 to Rs 3,352, among others.
Unilever’s scrips gaining a hefty Rs 2,300 to close at Rs 23,700 helped the manufacturing subgroup to more than recover the loss of the previous week and ascend by an impressive 125.29 points to rest at 1,802.76 points.
Hotels went up by 11.59 points to 1,875.79 points. Even as Oriental’s scrips dropped by Rs 28 to Rs 585 and Taragaon’s dipped by four rupees to land at Rs 241, the loss was offset by Soaltee’s shares edging up by eight rupees to Rs 438.
Nepal Telecom’s share value went up by six rupees to close at Rs 621, which in turn pulled up the others subgroup by 7.04 points to 729.57 points.
Development banks inched up by 2.85 points to 856.83 points. On the other hand, hydropower slumped by 40.38 points to 2,101.55, as Chilime’s shares lost Rs 61 to land at Rs 1,520 and Ridi Hydropower’s was down Rs 12 to Rs 395.
Likewise, finance dipped by 4.2 points to 539.28 points.NIC Asia Bank topped the chart in terms of number of shares traded and turnover, with 342,000 of its scrips worth Rs 281.57 million changing hands. Everest Bank with
Rs 206.32 million, Nepal Investment Bank with Rs 171.75 million, Nepal SBI Bank with Rs 141.76 million and Nepal Bangladesh Bank with Rs 138.63 million were the other firms to record high turnover during the review period.
Meanwhile, Century Commercial Bank was the forerunner with regards to number of transactions, clocking a total of 1,334 deals. - HNS
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