Kathmandu, April 30

Bullish investor sentiment caused the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index to clock a weekly gain of 23.24 points or 1.61 per cent to rest at a fresh peak of 1,464.91 points in the trading week of April 24 to 28.

Starting the week at 1,441.67 points on Sunday, the benchmark index had gained 12.68 points by the day’s closing and added another 7.4 points on Monday. Owing to profit-booking, Nepse dropped 8.64 points on Tuesday. However, the local bourse more than recovered the loss over the following two days — advancing 5.27 points on Wednesday and another 6.53 points on Thursday.

Altogether, 6.93 million shares of 141 firms that amounted to nearly Rs 4.60 billion were traded through 20,464 transactions in the week. The traded amount was 5.28 per cent higher than the previous week when 18,310 transactions of 7.42 million scrips of 145 firms worth Rs 4.37 billion had been undertaken.

The sensitive index, which gauges the performance of class 'A' stocks, rose 1.63 per cent to 317.27 points. Likewise, the float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded also went up 1.61 per cent to 105.71 points.

Whereas trading remained constant at 201.38 points, finance, hydropower and others landed in the red during the week.

Manufacturing took the lead in terms of gain, with the subgroup surging by 4.65 per cent to 2,354.24 points, on the back of Unilever’s share value soaring by Rs 2,017 to Rs 35,350.

On its heels, development banks rose by 3.95 per cent to 1,465.36 points. Nagbeli was up Rs 188 to Rs 3,468, Swabhalamban went up by Rs 244 to Rs 2,699 and Chhimek by Rs 159 to Rs 2,058.

With investors capitalising on reduced price of insurance stocks, the sub-index ascended 2.95 per cent to 6,541.41 points, with the likes of Life Insurance Co Nepal climbing Rs 195 to Rs 3,880 and Sagarmatha up Rs 61 to Rs 1,359.

The subgroup of commercial banks advanced 1.26 per cent to 1,385.77 points as share price of Standard Chartered went up by Rs 221 to Rs 3,595, and Nepal SBI up Rs 34 to Rs 1,760.

Hotels edged up 0.33 per cent to 1,918.6 points. Even as Soaltee shed five rupees to land at Rs 353 and Oriental dipped by four rupees to Rs 525, Taragaon’s share value soared by Rs 50 to Rs 264, which pulled the sub-index up.

Conversely, finance, hydropower and others subgroups witnessed minimal losses in the week. Finance fell 0.78 per cent to 718.84 points, hydropower by 0.50 per cent to 2,258.71 points and others by 0.15 per cent to 768.34 points.

Standard Chartered Bank took the lead in terms of turnover with Rs 405.06 million, followed by Nepal Life Insurance with Rs 296.94 million, ztNepal Bangladesh Bank with Rs 281.86 million, Global IME Bank with Rs 171.33 million and Everest Bank with Rs 160.64 million.

National Hydropower was the forerunner in terms of number of shares traded, with 526,000 of its scrips changing hands. Nepal Bangladesh Bank recorded most number of transactions — 1,199.