Kathmandu, July 7 Snapping a week-on-week losing streak after nine weeks, Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index witnessed a hike of 2.15 per cent or 25.87 points in the trading week between July 1 and 5 as Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) signalled that it would increase margin lending facility for share investors. In an interview on Wednesday, a high-ranking official of NRB said that the central bank is preparing to increase the margin lending facility for investors. “During the interview, the NRB official had mentioned that the central bank would help the stock market in the coming days, the effect of which could be seen in the share market the very next day,” said Uttam Aryal, chairman of Nepal Investors Association. “However, we have to wait for the monetary policy to know for sure about the ways in which NRB is going to help the local bourse.” The benchmark index, which had opened at 1,198.54 points on Sunday, had lost 14.01 points by the end of the day to close at 1,184.53 points. On Monday too, Nepse shed 4.82 points to rest at 1,179.71 points. However, it inched up by 0.65 point on Tuesday to 1,180.36 points. The upward trend continued for the next two days, rising by 8.04 points to 1,188.4 points on Wednesday and by 36.01 points on Thursday to close the week at 1,224.41 points. Meanwhile, the sensitive index increased by 2.13 per cent or 5.37 points to 257.46 points and the float index also ascended by 2.27 per cent or 1.96 points to 88 points. In the review period, eight out of the 10 subgroups witnessed gains with only the manufacturing sub-index landing in the red zone. The trading subgroup did not witness any transaction in the review period and remained steady at 197.54 points. The insurance sub-index was the biggest gainer and went up by 4.05 per cent or 244.15 points to rest at 6,264.73 points with the share value of Nepal Life Insurance increasing by Rs 45 to Rs 1,042. Similarly, the hotels subgroup also climbed up by 3.84 per cent or 69.58 points to 1,879.58 points. The share price of Soaltee Hotel rose by Rs 10 to Rs 247. The microfinance subgroup surged by 3.68 per cent or 58.14 points to land at 1,637.46 points, with Chhimek Laghubitta Bikas Bank’s share price rising by Rs 16 to Rs 891. Likewise, the development banks sub-index gained 2.46 per cent or 34.61 points to 1,438.46 points. Jyoti Bikas Bank saw its share price inch up by seven rupees to Rs 142. The hydropower subgroup rose by 1.75 per cent or 25.84 points to 1,498.11 points with Chilime Hydropower Company’s share price rising by Rs 20 to Rs 770. Meanwhile, the banking sub-index saw an increment of 1.74 per cent or 17.75 points to 1,034.49 points. This was due to Standard Chartered Bank’s share price rising by Rs 10 to Rs 746 and that of Himalayan Bank by Rs 13 to Rs 555. Similarly, others subgroup went up by 1.22 per cent or 8.63 points to land at 714.42 points because of Nepal Telecom’s share price going up by five rupees to Rs 728. The finance sub-index also inched up by 0.42 per cent or 2.61 points to 616.56 points. However, the manufacturing subgroup went down by 0.71 per cent or 16.16 points to 2,252.06 points, with Unilever Nepal Ltd’s share price decreasing by Rs 497 to Rs 25,403. Altogether, 4.25 million shares of 184 firms worth Rs 1.34 billion were traded through 20,281 transactions in the week. The traded amount was 28.39 per cent higher than total weekly turnover of the previous week, which was recorded at Rs 1.04 billion. In the past week, 3.67 million shares of 186 companies had changed hands through 15,848 transactions. In the review period, National Life Insurance took the lead in number of transactions and weekly turnover with 641 transactions that amounted to Rs 74.23 million. In terms of trading volume, Prime Commercial Bank took the lead, with 155,000 units of its shares changing hands. The remaining top four spots in terms of turnover were occupied by Prime Commercial Bank with Rs 43.26 million, Nepal Investment Bank with Rs 40.39 million, Chhimek Laghubitta Bikas Bank with Rs 39.26 million and Nabil Bank with Rs 38.94 million. NEW LISTINGS Company Type Units Deva Bikas Bank Rights 6,533,108.59 Karnali Development Bank Rights 120,800 Manjushree Finance Rights 362,190 Om Development Bank Bonus 3,781,073 RMDC Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Bonus 346,060 Suryodaya Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Rights 280,000 Source: Nepse