New listings

Name

Type

Unit

Everest Finance

Bonus

168,883

Sahayogi Bikas Bank

Bonus

564,107

Tourism Development Bank

Bonus

1,085,440

Kathmandu, April 23 Increased attraction to the stocks of commercial banks pushed Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index closer to threshold of 1,450 points in trading week of April 17 to 21. Similar to the previous week, the benchmark index was northbound throughout the week. Nepse had opened at a previous high of 1,405.78 points on Sunday and gained 3.65 points by the day’s closing. On Monday, it surged by a whopping 19.17 points — the biggest rise in the week. Nepse index edged up by 2.21 points on Tuesday, advanced by 9.88 points on Wednesday and inched up 0.98 points on Thursday. The local bourse clocked a weekly gain of 35.89 points or 2.55 per cent to rest at a new peak of 1,441.67 points. “Investor sentiment is still bullish, more so looking at the impressive profit growth of the banks that have released their quarterly reports,” said Rabindra Bhattarai, a stock market analyst, advising investors to keep an eye on reports that will be released by other banks and financial institutions in the coming days. Altogether, 7.43 million shares of 145 companies were traded through 18,319 transactions that amounted to Rs 4.38 billion in the week. The amount was a whopping 92.97 per cent higher than the preceding week, when the market had remained open for trading for only four days as against normal five days due to a public holiday. Back then, 10,781 transactions of 4.47 million scrips of 147 firms worth Rs 2.27 billion had been undertaken. The sensitive index, which gauges the performance of class ‘A’ stocks, rose 2.78 per cent to 312.18 points. Likewise, the float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded also gained 2.96 per cent to 104.03 points. Whereas trading remained constant at 201.38 points, others and hydropower landed in the red. Similar to the preceding week, commercial banks led the market rally, with the banking sub-index advancing 4.41 per cent to 1,368.48 points. In fact, Nabil Bank secured the top spot among the listed companies in terms of market capitalisation in the week. Its share value rose by Rs 121 to Rs 2,241. Standard Chartered went up by Rs 129 to Rs 3,374, and Nepal Investment by Rs 90 to Rs 1,200, among others. After barely managing to land in the green in previous week, insurance surged by 3.42 per cent to 6,353.93 points this time around. Stock price of Shikhar Insurance went up by Rs 310 to Rs 2,160 and Nepal Life by Rs 193 to Rs 3,795. Adding to the previous week’s gain of 2.98 per cent, hotels rose by another 2.65 per cent to 1,912.32 points during the review period. Soaltee gained Rs 10 to Rs 358 and Oriental rose by Rs 19 to Rs 529. Because of Unilever Nepal’s share value soaring by Rs 1,081 to Rs 33,333, the manufacturing subgroup climbed 2.56 per cent to 2,249.57 points. Meanwhile, development banks gained 1.6 per cent to 1,409.73 points and finance rose by 1.11 per cent to 724.48 points. At the other side of the spectrum, Nepal Telecom (NT)’s share price plunged by Rs 60 to Rs 655. The massive dive caused its market capitalisation to drop by a whopping Rs nine billion over the week, which resulted in the company losing its top spot among the companies with highest market capitalisation and dragged the others sub-index down 8.39 per cent to 769.51 points. “The main reason was due to price adjustment as NT decided to distribute 50 per cent cash dividend to its investors,” explained Bhattarai, adding some investors may have decided to sell their NT stocks and invest in other firms, which may have lowered its share price further. Hydropower too dipped by 0.56 per cent to 2,270.09 points. Everest Bank booked highest turnover with Rs 336.26 million, followed by Citizens Bank International with Rs 258.98 million, Standard Chartered Bank with Rs 249.24 million, Nepal Bangladesh Bank with Rs 207.15 million and Nepal Investment Bank with Rs 193.33 million. Siddhartha Investment Growth Scheme - I was the forerunner in terms of number of shares traded, with 717,000 of its scrips changing hands. Citizens Bank International recorded the most number of transactions — 1,222.