KATHMANDU, JULY 2

The annual trend of share market rallying towards the end of the fiscal year could again be witnessed in the trading period between June 26 and July 1, with the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index surging by 166.71 points or 8.9 per cent week-onweek.

But apart from the general trend, investor sentiment got a major boost in the review week on the reports of the market regulator and other government authorities hinting at revision of provisions that would be favourable for the secondary market.

Profit-booking, however, did apply brakes to the rally and ensured the market did not overheat.

Chhote Lal Rauniyar, the immediate past president of Nepal Investors Forum, had recently told THT that officials of Ministry of Finance, Nepal Rastra Bank and Securities Board of Nepal had been holding dialogues with registered investors' associations.

'The meetings have been largely positive and we are expecting the upcoming monetary policy to address various issues related to the share market,' he had said.

The sensitive index, which measures performance of class 'A' stocks, increased by 6.50 per cent or 23.72 points to 388.62 points in the review period.

Similarly, the float index that gauges performances of shares actually traded also rose by 9.21 per cent to 140.22 points.

Altogether 30.34 million shares were traded during the trading week through 216,286 transactions that amounted to Rs 10.64 billion.

The weekly turnover was more than 39 per cent higher than the preceding week when 25.20 million shares had changed hands through 165,588 transactions that totalled Rs 7.63 billion.

The average daily turnover in past week was Rs 1.27 billion and it rose to Rs 1.77 billion this week.

The benchmark index had opened at 1,862.06 points on Sunday and rose by a whopping 94.93 points to close at 1956.99 points for the day. The market went into correction for the next two days, as Nepse index fell by 23.86 points on Monday and continued to head southbound on Tuesday by falling 11.81 points.

However, the market more than recovered the losses over the next two trading days, with the benchmark index advancing by 41.39 points to 1,962.71 points on Wednesday and ascending by 74.93 points to 2,037.64 points on Thursday.

Profit-booking on the last trading day of the week caused the Nepse index to shed 8.87 points to settle at 2,028.77 for the week.

All the subgroups landed in the green during the week, led by the trading sub-index, which surged by 21.34 per cent to 1,886.31 points. Finance subgroup advanced by 16.09 per cent to 1,544.41 points. The others subgroup gained 12.68 per cent to 1,530.39 points, development banks rose by 12.67 per cent to 3,488.75 points, investment went up by 13.51 per cent to 66.48 points.

Meanwhile, microfinance advanced by 11.82 per cent to 4,487.79 points, manufacturing and processing by 11.87 per cent to 5,112.17 points, hotels and tourism by 10.16 per cent to 2,710.04 points.

Non-life insurance rose by 9.41 per cent to 8,274.70 points, life insurance went up by 10.78 per cent to 9,935.66 points and mutual funds edged up by 6.85 per cent to 14.66 points. Banking, the subgroup with the highest weightage on the market capitalisation, rose by 4.15 per cent to 1,372.22 points.

A version of this article appears in the print on July 3, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.