Kathmandu, October 6

Increased selling pressure as the festive season is just around the corner pulled the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index down by 3.14 per cent or 39.81 points in trading week between September 30 and October 4.

While technically the demand for shares of banks and financial institutions should have gone up considering that they have unveiled impressive earnings, investors are currently more focused on profit-booking for preparations of the fast-approaching Dashain and Tihar festivals, explained Uttam Aryal, chairman of Share Investors’ Association. “The current trend will likely continue till the festive season ends.”

In line with Nepse index, the sensitive index also went down by 3.33 per cent or 8.99 points to 260.24 points and float index fell by 3.47 per cent or 3.21 points to 89.17 points.

The weekly turnover plunged by 27.85 per cent to Rs 2.39 billion compared to total transaction amount of Rs 3.31 billion in the previous week. Likewise, the daily average turnover also went down to Rs 477.37 million in the review period from Rs 827.04 million in the past week.

Also, the number of shares traded fell to 8.93 million in the week compared to 16.77 million in the corresponding period of the preceding week.

Having opened at 1,267.18 points on Sunday, the benchmark index had dropped by 10.47 points by the time of closing. On Monday, the market added 18.04 points to the loss. While the local bourse inched up by 2.69 points on Tuesday as investors rushed to capitalise on reduced share price, the optimism could not sustain and Nepse fell by 10.76 points on Wednesday. Dipping further by 3.23 points on Thursday, Nepse closed at 1,227.37 points for the week.

Trading was the only subgroup to land in the green zone in the review period — rising by 4.21 per cent or 9.46 points to 233.85 points. Share value of Bishal Bazar jumped by Rs 90 to Rs 1,810.

Contrarily, development banks subgroup plunged by 4.41 per cent or 68.13 points to 1,476.2 points, with share price of Mahalaxmi down Rs 40 to Rs 177. The hotels sub-index slumped by 3.89 per cent or 74.90 points to 1,845.8 points. Soaltee lost Rs 11 to Rs 245, Taragon Regency was down two rupees to Rs 257 and Oriental fell by Rs 26 to Rs 519.

Banking — the subgroup with highest weightage — decreased by 3.60 per cent or 40.38 points to 1,078.56 points. Share value of Standard Chartered was down by Rs 20 to Rs 690 and that of Nepal Investment by Rs 15 to Rs 640.

Microfinance fell by 3.39 per cent or 52.29 points to 1,486.69 points. Non-life insurance went down by 3.09 per cent or 183.54 points to 5,750.74 points. Life insurance was down by 2.10 per cent or 119.85 points to 5,575.69 points.

Similarly, the hydropower subgroup decreased by 2.06 per cent or 29.20 points to 1,382.99 points. It was due to Api dropping by Rs 11 to Rs 243. The others sub-index also fell by 1.77 per cent or 13.22 points to 733.03 points. The finance sub-index decreased by 1.30 per cent or 8.03 points to 609.21 points and manufacturing subgroup fell by 1.14 per cent or 26.91 points to 2,318.94 points.

In the review week, Nepal Bank was the forerunner in terms of weekly turnover of Rs 145.15 million. It was followed by NMB Bank with Rs 129.49 million, Global IME Bank with Rs 124.78 million, NIC Asia Bank with Rs 114.57 million and Prabhu Bank with Rs 96.15 million to round up the top five firms in this category.

Likewise, Nepal Bank also took the lead in terms of weekly trading volume with 461,000 of its shares changing hands. Prabhu Bank with 409,000 shares, Machhapuchchhre Bank with 409,000 shares, Global IME Bank with 393,000 shares and NMB Bank with 364,000 shares were the other top companies to record high trading volume.

Meanwhile, Prabhu Bank topped the chart in terms of number of transactions — 978. It was followed by NMB Bank (927), Mega Bank Nepal (895), Kumari Bank (784) and NIC Asia Bank (771).