Kathmandu, January 30

The bull run being witnessed in the sole secondary market of the country continued in the trading week of January 24 to 28, with the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index rising by 3.79 points or 0.31 per cent week-on-week.

The implementation of paperless transaction, lack of other profitable investment avenues coupled with positive political cues have boosted investor sentiment in recent days.

Opening at 1,212.32 points on Sunday, the benchmark index rose by 7.3 points to 1,219.62 points, breaching the previous high of 1,214.31 points recorded on January 18. On Monday, it added another 2.81 points to record a fresh high of 1,222.43 points.

Similar to the previous week, the local bourse was southbound in the last three trading days of the week. Nepse dropped 4.04 points on Tuesday, 1.43 points on Wednesday and 0.85 point on Thursday to close the trading week at 1,216.11 points.

In total, 3.44 million shares of 120 firms worth Rs 2.19 billion were traded through 10,509 transactions in the week. Traded amount was 12.68 per cent less than previous week’s Rs 2.50 billion when 11,919 transactions of 3.76 million scrips of 106 firms had been undertaken.

The sensitive index, which gauges the performance of class ‘A’ stocks, rose 0.32 per cent to 261.58 points. Similarly, the float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded also went up 0.34 per cent to 87.2 points.

Among the subgroups, trading remained constant at 201.38 points, while insurance, hydropower and others recorded losses.

After witnessing massive drops in the past weeks, manufacturing rebounded to lead the pack of gainers during the review period. The subgroup surged by 2.86 per cent to 1,842.02 points on the back of Unilever’s share value surging by

Rs 988 to Rs 25,479.

Trailing close behind, the sub-index of development banks ascended 2.69 per cent to 1,210.25 points. Swabalamban’s share price went up by Rs 65 to Rs 2,065 and that of Chhimek by Rs 56 to Rs 1,805.

Adding to the previous week’s rise of 0.92 per cent, hotels subgroup gained 1.71 per cent to 1,772.4 points as Soaltee rose by two rupees to Rs 330.

Finance inched up 0.39 per cent to 585.78 points.

The sub-index of commercial banks also added a minimal 0.06 per cent to 1,106.57 points, with the share value of Everest up two rupees to Rs 2,315, among others.

At the other end of the spectrum, the others subgroup fell 0.73 per cent to 798.88 points, weighed down by Nepal Telecom’s share price down five rupees to Rs 680.

Insurance reversed some of the gains of past week by shedding 0.52 per cent to 5,409.16 points. Life Insurance Co Nepal lost Rs 30 to Rs 3,510 and Prime Life was down Rs 44 to Rs 1,618.

Hydropower dipped by 0.49 per cent to 2,141.52 points. Sanima Mai lost Rs 22 to Rs 863 and Chilime was down Rs 10 to Rs 1,284.

Similar to the previous week, Sanima Bank retained its top spot in terms of turnover with Rs 136.78 million. It was followed by Nepal Life Insurance with Rs 116.92 million, Nepal Investment Bank (Promoter Share) with Rs 101.25 million, National Life Insurance with Rs 93.46 million and Global IME Bank with Rs 84.97 million.

Sanima Bank was also the forerunner in terms of number of shares traded and number of transactions, with 190,000 of its scrips changing hands through 587 transactions.