Kathmandu, April 15

The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index gained 67.68 points or 3.63 per cent to resurface above the threshold of 1,900 points in between April 9 and 13.

Although it had been following a downward trend for the last four weeks, the market saw some respite after the Supreme Court gave green light to the Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) to distribute licences for new stockbrokers, to establish a new stock exchange and commodity exchange markets on Sunday. Although, the SEBON had amended securities guidelines and regulations to introduce a new stock exchange, two commodity exchange markets as well as increase the number of stockbrokers on September 18 and called on interested applicants, the Supreme Court had directed to suspend the licence distribution process after a writ petition was filed against the decision. The decision of the Supreme Court approving SEBON's decision to distribute the licences had been long awaited by investors and stakeholders, leading to some increase in the Nepse index over the review period.

Investors have also suggested lowering the commission rate, introducing an auction market, intra-day trading and short-selling systems, increasing participation of non-residential Nepalis in the market, decreasing interest rates, and capital gains tax, among others, to accelerate the sector's growth, and securing the investment of the citizens.

The sensitive index, which measures performance of class 'A' stocks, rose by 14.95 points or 4.23 per cent to 367.98 points. The float index that gauges the performances of shares actually traded also rose by 3.80 per cent to 135.50 points.

Altogether 21.14 million shares were traded during the review week through 192,018 transactions that amounted to Rs 6.64 billion. The weekly turnover increased by over 38 per cent compared to the previous trading week, when 15.06 million shares had changed hands through 127,930 transactions that totalled Rs 4.78 billion. The average turnover in the review week stood at Rs 1.32 billion.

The benchmark index had opened at 1,866.79 points on Sunday and lost 28.30 points to 1,838.49 points by the time of closing. On Monday, the benchmark inched up by 5.53 points to 1,844.02 points before increasing again by 27.32 points on Tuesday to 1,871.34 points. The index surged by 92.21 points on Wednesday before losing 29.08 points on Thursday to settle at 1,934.47 for the trading week.

All of the sub-groups landed in the green this week. Hotels and tourism led the pack of gainers after soaring by 5.66 per cent to 3,344.60 points; finance gained 5.27 per cent to 1,656.57 per cent; manufacturing and processing increased by 5.04 per cent to 4,516.55 per cent; microfinance trailed with a gain of 4.53 per cent to 3,521.61 points; banking surged by 4.32 per cent to 1,254.84 points; development banks rose by 4.19 per cent to 3,556.32 points; investment by 3.66 per cent to 65.36 points; and mutual funds by 3.54 per cent to 13.74 points.

Similarly, trading jumped by 3.40 per cent to 2,171.42 per cent; life insurance advanced 2.90 per cent to 9,643.18 points; hydropower gained 2.41 per cent to 2,525.36 points; others increased by 1.96 per cent to 1,431.27 points; and non-life insurance by 1.88 per cent to 8,603.37 points.

A version of this article appears in the print on April 16, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.