KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 19

With some progress in the country's financial position compared to previous months due to increasing remittance flow, easing liquidity situation, growing export of electricity to India and improving share investor sentiment, the Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) has witnessed some positive growth in recent weeks.

The Nepse index rose by 43.13 points or 2.28 per cent to settle at 1,936.83 points in the trading week between November 13 and 17.

According to Chhote Lal Rauniyar, former president of Nepal Investors Forum, the investor sentiment has become stronger compared to before as a result of various factors. 'As much as Rs 2.81 trillion in remittance has flown into the country in the first three months of the current fiscal year, an increase by almost 41 per cent compared to the first quarter of the previous year. This has helped ease the liquidity situation in the country along with increasing economic activities following the festive season and the onset of the elections. Also, the export of electricity to India has helped to improve our balance of payments and the country's overall financial situation. This has strengthened the psychology of the investors and the market is witnessing a positive growth as a result of it,' he said.

Rauniyar pointed out that the governor of Nepal Rastra Bank has also made commitments to ease the loan process and its interest rates, further encouraging the sector and opined that the stock market would improve further in the coming days.

The sensitive index, which measures performance of class 'A' stocks, increased by 2.33 per cent or 8.69 points to 381.06 points in the review period. The float index that gauges performances of shares actually traded also rose by 2.24 per cent to 135.46 points.

Altogether 14.10 million shares were traded during the review week through 103,514 transactions that amounted to Rs 5.31 billion. The weekly turnover decreased by over 26 per cent compared to the previous week when 18.44 million shares had changed hands through 128,138 transactions that totalled Rs 7.23 billion.

The average daily turnover in the past week was Rs 1.44 billion and it decreased to Rs 1.06 billion this week.

The benchmark index had opened at 1,983.70 points on Sunday and declined by 10.54 points to close at 1,883.16 points for the day before increasing by 21.29 points to 1,904.45 points on Monday. The market fell by 6.59 points on Tuesday to 1,897.86 points and gained 13.40 points on Wednesday to 1,956.36 points. On Thursday, the benchmark index rose by 25.57 points to settle at 1,936.83 points for the week. All the subgroups landed in the green this week.

The finance subgroup increased by 4.47 per cent or 68.33 points to 1,595.86 points, development banks by 3.96 per cent or 131.80 points to 3,462.55 points, investment by 2.63 per cent or 1.48 points to 57.84 points, hydropower by 4.37 per cent or 85.02 points to 2,029.25 points, manufacturing and processing by 4.12 per cent or 202.16 points to 5,108.40 points, non-life insurance by 1.73 per cent or 130.53 points to 7,675.99 points and others by 4.12 per cent or 57.86 points to 1461.76 points.

Banking, the subgroup with the highest weightage in the market capitalisation, landed on 1,357.92 points, up 1.56 per cent or 20.83 points.

Hotels and tourism gained 2.91 per cent or 76.95 points to 2,717.64 points, mutual funds by 0.67 per cent or 0.09 point to 13.56 points, microfinance by 0.01 per cent or 0.32 points to 4,263.79 points, life insurance edged up by 1.93 per cent or 171.98 points to 9,077.04 points, and the trading subgroup increased by 0.26 per cent or 4.71 points to 1,826.70 points.

A version of this article appears in the print on November 20, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.