Kathmandu, June 25

Even as the secondary market witnessed slight correction in the beginning of the trading week, the bull run starting Tuesday helped the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index to clock a weekly gain of 33.35 points or 2.04 per cent to rest at yet another fresh peak from June 19 to 23.

Starting the week at 1,632.94 points on Sunday, the benchmark index had dropped 10.67 points by the day’s closing. Nepse shed another 7.17 points on Monday owing to profit-booking. Thereafter, the local bourse rebounded strongly — surging by 13.71 points on Tuesday, 18.7 points on Wednesday and 18.78 points on Thursday, setting a new all-time high record at 1,666.29 points.

Altogether, 11.09 million shares of 147 firms worth Rs 7.82 billion were traded through 32,018 transactions during the week. The traded amount was 15.76 per cent less than previous week when 34,610 transactions of 15.29 million scrips of 149 firms worth Rs 9.31 billion had been undertaken.

The sensitive index, which gauges the performance of class ‘A’ stocks, rose by 1.92 per cent to 359.39 points. Similarly, the float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded also gained 1.9 per cent to 120.69 points during the review period.

Whereas trading remained constant at 201.38 points, all remaining subgroups landed in the green zone by the end of the week.

The week’s market rally was led by the hydropower subgroup, which surged by 6.54 per cent to 2,715.32 points. Share value of Sanima Mai rose by Rs 230 to Rs 1,110, Chilime’s by Rs 20 to Rs 1,415, and Api’s by Rs 102 to Rs 872, among others.

Banking — the heavyweight in Nepse index — rose by 2.2 per cent to 1,497.69 points. This was on back of stock price of commercial banks like Standard Chartered Nepal climbing to Rs 3,675 (up Rs 339), Everest to Rs 3,260 (up Rs 135) and Nabil to Rs 2,340 (up Rs 45).

Adding to the previous week’s rise of 1.85 per cent, hotels subgroup advanced by 1.9 per cent to 2,020.3 points. Even as Oriental lost Rs 10 to close the week at Rs 530, the loss was offset by Soaltee’s share price up eight rupees to Rs 380 and Taragaon Regency surging by Rs 19 to Rs 249.

Insurance — the subgroup that had led the pack of gainers in the past week — went up by 1.75 per cent to 9,509.89 points. Stock price of National Life went up by Rs 155 to Rs 3,600, and that of Premier rose by Rs 151 to Rs 2,252.

Unilever Nepal’s share value surged by Rs 500 to Rs 35,700, which helped the manufacturing subgroup to land at 2,430.44 points, up 1.61 per cent.

Others subgroup managed to reverse course this week, as Nepal Telecom’s stock price went up by seven rupees to Rs 674. This pulled others sub-index up 1.05 per cent to 791.83 points.

Development banks edged up 0.94 per cent to 1,657.91 points, while finance also inched up 0.85 per cent to 747.68 points.

Meanwhile, Nepal Bangladesh Bank retained its top position in terms of turnover with Rs 439.47 million, followed by National Life Insurance (Rs 391.93 million), Shikhar Insurance (Rs 321.08 million), Sanima Mai Hydropower (Rs 284.66 million) and Neco Insurance (Rs 238.61 million).

Siddhartha Equity Oriented Scheme topped the chart with regards to number of shares traded, with 1.61 million of its scrips changing hands. With 1,214 transactions, National Hydropower was the forerunner in that category.