Kathmandu, January 16

The country’s only secondary market was on the upward trajectory from January 10 to 14, and saw the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index record a weekly gain of 26.02 points or 2.23 per cent to settle at 1,190.16 points — over a four-month high.

The benchmark index opened at 1,164.14 points on Sunday and had ascended 3.04 points by the day’s closing. Nepse inched up 1.63 points on Monday. The gain in the local bourse over the next three days was significantly higher — 4.79 points on Tuesday, 7.38 points on Wednesday and 9.18 points on Thursday. The last time Nepse was around the current level was on September 14, when the benchmark index had closed at 1,194.11 points.

The Nepse index is expected to witness a rally in coming week, as compulsory trading of dematerialised shares will be enforced from Sunday. With the supply of demat shares likely to be lower than the market demand, it may push up the benchmark index.

In total, 5.11 million shares of 161 firms worth Rs 2.45 billion were traded through 27,374 transactions during the week. The traded amount was 3.82 per cent less than the previous week when 21,456 transactions of 4.05 million scrips of 151 listed firms that amounted to Rs 2.55 billion had been undertaken.

The sensitive index, which gauges the performance of class ‘A’ stocks, rose 2.32 per cent to 255.83 points. Likewise, the float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded also went up 2.56 per cent to 85.04 points during the review period.

Among the subgroups, others and manufacturing landed in the red, while the rest recorded gains.

The hydropower subgroup led the pack of gainers, surging by 9.05 per cent to 2,164.29 points. Chilime’s share price soared by Rs 162 to Rs 1,360 and Api Power Co’s by Rs 22 to Rs 390.

Adding to preceding week’s gain of 1.95 per cent, development banks rose by 3.18 per cent to 1,140.18 points. This was because Swabalamban’s stock value went up by Rs 65 to Rs 1,985 and Chhimek’s by Rs 57 to Rs 1,721.

The sub-index of commercial banks went up 2.62 per cent to 1,080.42 points. Everest gained Rs 236 to Rs 2,291, Standard Chartered was up Rs 85 to Rs 2,675, Nabil was up Rs 35 to Rs 1,850 and Nepal SBI was up Rs 65 to Rs 1,565.

Finance recovered the previous week’s dip of 0.15 per cent and ascended 2.13 per cent to 585.64 points. This was mostly on the back of Citizen Investment Trust’s share value going up Rs 306 to Rs 4,480.

Trading too managed to reverse course this week to gain 1.27 per cent to 201.38 points, as Bishal Bazaar Co’s stock price went up by Rs 30 to Rs 2,030.

The hotels subgroup inched up 0.71 per cent to 1,726.79 points. Soaltee gained three rupees to Rs 326, and Oriental was up five rupees to Rs 415.

Rastriya Beema Co’s stock price soared by a whopping Rs 1,239 to Rs 7,446 and resulted in the insurance sub-index to rise 0.34 per cent to 5,375.74 points.

On the flip side, the others subgroup — which had led the pack of gainers in the previous week with a rise of 3.82 per cent — fell 1.47 per cent to 787.13 points. This was due to Nepal Telecom’s share price dropping Rs 10 to Rs 670.

Similarly, with Himalayan Distillery’s stock value down Rs 10 to Rs 495, the manufacturing sub-index recorded a loss of 0.30 per cent to 1,843.1 points.

Sanima Bank topped the chart in terms of turnover with Rs 117.08 million. It was followed by Kumari Bank with Rs 109.85 million, Laxmi Bank with Rs 104.26 million, Nepal SBI Bank with Rs 90.75 million and National Life Insurance Co with Rs 89.53 million.

Kumari Bank (Promoter Share) was the forerunner in terms of shares traded with 427,000 of its scrips changing hands, while Api Power Co retained its top spot in terms of transactions, clocking 7,092 deals.