Kathmandu, August 10

The bull run witnessed in the stock market since past few weeks propelled Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index to close at over one-year high today.

The benchmark index surged by 17.95 points or 1.69 per cent, today to end at 1,081.36 points. Last time the Nepse index was at the current level was on July 23, 2014 when it had closed at 1,081.51 points.

Today’s bull run at the stock market was led by the banking sector. Banking sub-index grew by 27.26 points or 2.77 per cent to 1,011.64 points.

Investors are increasingly getting attracted to the banking stocks, deeming it a profitable investment after the Nepal Rastra Bank issued a directive requiring commercial banks to raise their paid-up capital by four folds within mid-July, 2017.

Commercial banks captured the top five positions in terms of turnover today — NIC Asia Bank (Rs 43.66 million), Everest Bank (Rs 43.44 million) , Machhapuchchhre Bank (Rs 38.21), Nepal SBI Bank (Rs 37.79 million) and Nepal Bangladesh Bank (Rs 35.26 million).

The market had opened with Nepse index at 1,063.41 points and landed at 1,081.36 points by the end of the day. Sub-indices of banking, development banks and insurance subgroups ended in the green zone today. However, hotels, hydropower and finance subgroup sub-indices wound up in the red.

Development banks sub-index increased by 10.55 points or 1.23 per cent to end at 865.92 points. Likewise, insurance sector sub-index gained 67.13 points or 1.48 per cent to 4,604.01 points.

However, sub-indices of hydropower, finance and hotels slipped by 1.45, 0.44 and 0.36 per cent to end at 2,087.69 points, 539.82 points and 1,858.61 points, respectively.

The sensitive index, which measures the performance of blue chip stocks, rose by 1.87 per cent to 232.79 points. Likewise, the float index that measures the actual shares traded, increased by 1.51 per cent to 77.18 points.

A total of 1,145,716 units of shares of 129 companies worth Rs 732.32 million changed hands through 4,341 transactions today.

Today’s top-five gainers were development banks and commercial banks, namely Chhimek Laghubitta Bikas Bank’s stock price increased by 10 per cent, Nerude Laghubitta Bikas Bank (8.29 per cent), First Microfinance Development Bank (7.94 per cent), Standard Chartered Bank (7.20 per cent) and Swarojgar Laghubitta Bikas Bank (6.67 per cent).