• Analysts say odds in favour of local bourse breaching 2,000-point threshold in the not too distant future

Kathmandu, July 23 The extension of trading hours at the country’s only secondary market and seasonal factors helped the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index to record a weekly gain of 4.69 per cent or 80.68 points to close at 1,798.83 points. Talking to The Himalayan Times recently, Rabindra Bhattarai, a stock market analyst had said, “The recently introduced monetary policy was mostly in favour of the secondary market, which has also fuelled the bullish sentiment.” Beginning the week at 1,718.15 points, the benchmark index had surged by 27.59 points by the day’s closing. On Monday, Nepse soared by 40.83 points and on Tuesday added another 13.9 points to settle at a new all-time high of 1,800.47 points. On Wednesday, however, the local bourse dropped 13.63 points on profit-booking to retreat below the 1,800-point threshold. On Thursday, Nepse salvaged some of the loss of the previous day by advancing 11.99 points. “Since the Nepse index is normally bullish in the period between mid-July to mid-September, there are high chances the benchmark index will breach the 2,000-point threshold in the near future,” Bhattarai had said. Altogether, 14.63 million shares of 151 companies worth Rs 9.04 billion were traded through 42,649 transactions during the week. The traded amount was 49.64 per cent higher than the previous week when 26,094 transactions of 10.1 million scrips of 159 firms that amounted to Rs 6.05 billion had been undertaken. The sensitive index, which gauges the performance of class ‘A’ stocks, rose by 5.03 per cent or 18.58 points to 387.65 points. The float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded gained 5.75 per cent or 7.21 points to 132.62 points. Similar to the past week, trading continued to hold steady at 202.79 points. Banking — the share market heavyweight — surged by 7.66 per cent or 120.53 points to 1,694.24 points. Investors have been attracted to the shares of commercial banks expecting the class ‘A’ financial institutions to show good performance in the last quarter of the last fiscal, as in the previous quarters. Machhapuchchhre Bank’s share value soared by Rs 190 to Rs 870, Nabil Bank’s went up by Rs 81 to Rs 2,425, and that of Nepal Investment Bank rose by Rs 90 to Rs 1,130, among others. Manufacturing topped the previous week’s gain of 5.29 per cent by advancing 9.58 per cent or 247.21 points to 2,828.73 points. This was on the back of Bottlers Nepal (Tarai)’s stock price sky-rocketing by Rs 3,466 to Rs 9,402 and Unilever Nepal’s rise of Rs 209 to Rs 35,230. Insurance subgroup rose by 3.78 per cent or 329.69 points to 9,052.09 points; finance went up by 2.20 per cent or 18.46 points to 856.28 points; and hotels edged up 0.18 per cent or 3.6 points to 2,034.31 points. At the other end of the spectrum, hydropower dropped by 1.58 per cent or 42.63 points to 2,647.55 points; others fell 1.57 per cent or 13.31 points to 834.95 points; and development banks dipped 0.19 per cent or 3.45 points to 1,769.3 points. Meanwhile, Siddhartha Bank topped the chart in terms of turnover with Rs 565.39 million, followed by Machhapuchchhre Bank with Rs 548.77 million, Nepal Bank with Rs 405.89 million, Hydroelectricity Investment and Development Company Ltd (HIDCL) with Rs 331.26 million and Nepal Bangladesh Bank with Rs 330.45 million. Siddhartha Equity Oriented Scheme retained its top position with regards to trading volume, with 2.09 million of its scrips changing hands. HIDCL clocked 3,725 transactions — the most number of transactions recorded by a single listed firm in the week.