The dividend announcements seem to have buoyed investors as the
market reacted positively to the string of dividends declared this week —
September 8 to 12.The index gained 2.95 points on the week’s trading as the dividend announcements of Chilime Hydropower, Nabil Bank and Everest Bank affected the market. Chilime’s shares registered a gain of Rs 83 per unit, while Nabil Bank’s shares shot up by Rs 145 per unit. However, Everest Bank’s shares suffered as the dividend announcement though hefty disappointed investors by its scanty bonus share allotments and its shares fell by Rs 187 per unit.
On Sunday, the market had opened at 546.55 points which reached 552.07 points by the time the market closed. The next day, it inched to 552.22 points. However, on Tuesday, due to confusion created by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB)’s directive regarding the increment of paid up capital after the end of the current fiscal year made investors wary. This caused the index to drop to 547.33 points. However, in the next two days, it picked up as NRB explained that there is no extension to the deadline. By the end of the week, the benchmark index rested at 549.50 points.
This week, Nepse’s trading floor recorded transaction volume of Rs 972.6 million which is 53 per cent less than last week’s when Nepal Bangladesh Bank’s block transfer was undertaken. This week, 2.5 million unit shares were traded in 11,646 transactions, while there were 9400 transactions recorded for 6.5 million unit shares last week.
Share trading of blue chip stocks belonging to the class ‘A’ group comprised of 62.48 per cent of total transactions, amounting to Rs 607.7 million. The sensitive index increased by 0.76 points. Likewise, the float index also went up by 0.3 points to 38.81 points.
This week, hydropower and insurance companies registered the highest gains, while finance companies ended up in the red, losing 0.81 points along with the others subgroup. Nepal Telecom’s share price declined by Rs five and the others subgroup also headed south by 5.87 points.
Hydropower was the biggest earner of the week and earned 43 points due to gains in share prices of Chilime Hydropower even though Butwal Power Company’s shares slumped by Rs 20 per unit.
The insurance subgroup recorded a gain of 34.71 points as share prices of Nepal Life Insurance and National Life Insurance went up by Rs 119 and Rs 49 per unit.
Commercial banks and development banks recorded gains of 2.06 points and 4.08 points, respectively, thanks to the ongoing dividend announcements. Hotels also gained 3.22 points.
This week, Chilime Hydropower topped the charts in terms of transaction volume with trading of shares worth Rs 257.1 million. Mega Bank Nepal was the forerunner in terms of number of transactions with 2834 transactions, while Nabil Balanced Fund topped in terms of number of shares traded with trading of 220,008 units.
The top five companies this week in terms of transaction volume were Chilime Hydropower Company (Rs 257.1 million),
Everest Bank (Rs 93.52 million), Nabil Bank (Rs 66.15 million), Nepal Bangladesh Bank (Rs 45.01 million) and Mega Bank Nepal(Rs 38.58 million).
Source: THT
