Kathmandu, February 29 The outbreak of coronavirus that has battered the world stock market has provided a sudden windfall to the local bourse, causing the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) to surge week-on-week by a whopping 13.77 per cent or 197.61 points between February 23 and 27. As the Indian stock markets have gone on a tailspin due to the coronavirus jitters, some of the bigger stock investors have entered Nepal to capitalise on the bull run here, said a stock investor, who wished to remain anonymous. “Some Indian share investors, in a bid to dodge the bearish run in the Indian share markets, have diverted their investment in Nepse in collaboration with Nepali Investors.” The investor further claimed that some share investors of both the neighbouring countries swap funds to invest in their respective share markets, depending on the market movement. “Since the last two weeks, Nepse had witnessed the flow of a huge amount of funds from India.” Meanwhile, Uttam Aryal, chairperson of Investors’ Association of Nepal, said that the market has been bullish due to the closing of the Chinese border. “The cross-country traders have invested their money in the share market for the short-term in hopes of good yields compared to the returns they would get from the banks,” he explained. The government shut Rashuwagadi border on January 28 to prevent spread of coronavirus after number of infections in China soared. As a result, Nepal-China trade has been completely halted since. “Moreover, banks and financial institutions are no longer facing liquidity crunch and both the government and stock regulatory authority are also positive regarding development of the secondary market,” Aryal added. Against this backdrop, the weekly turnover in the country’s sole secondary market soared by 66.23 per cent compared to the previous week to Rs 18.63 billion — with Rs 4.46 billion traded on Thursday alone, which was the highest daily turnover. In the previous week, the market had witnessed transactions worth Rs 11.21 billion. The trading volume also rose to 44.94 million stocks changing hands in the review week from 25.33 million in the preceding week. The benchmark index was at 1,434.58 points when the secondary market opened on Sunday. It had surged by 69.56 points by the end of the first trading day. After making a slight correction by dipping 1.96 points on Monday, the local bourse jumped by 43.02 points on Tuesday, advanced by 50.93 points on Wednesday and added another 36.05 points on Thursday to close the week at 1,632.18 points. In the review week, all the subindices landed in the green zone. Banking — the subgroup with the highest weightage in the country’s only secondary market — was the highest gainer of the week, soaring by 19.74 per cent or 237.43 points to 1,440.15 points. It was due to the share price of commercial banks like NIC Asia going up by Rs 106 to Rs 660 and Nepal Investment by Rs 88 to Rs 484. Similarly, life insurance subindex rose by 14.96 per cent or 1,267.67 points to 9,741.31 points. Nepal Life Insurance Co gained Rs 223 to Rs 1,463 and Life Insurance Co rose by Rs 233 to Rs 1,738. The manufacturing subgroup advanced by 11.69 per cent or 339.68 points to 3,243.17 points. Stock price of Unilever Nepal surged by Rs 3,697 to Rs 23,330 and Bottlers Nepal (Tarai) went up by Rs 69 to Rs 8,568. New listings Company Type Units Chilime Hydropower Bonus 9,516,271.56 Guras Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Bonus 59,000 Himal Dolakha Hydropower IPO 16,000,000 Source: Nepse Others sub-index jumped 11.07 per cent or 79.67 points to 799.43 points, with share price of Nepal Telecom — company with the highest market capitalisation — increasing by Rs 90 to Rs 719. Development banks subgroup went up by 9.67 per cent or 182.08 points to 2,063.71 points on the back of Jyoti Bikas Bank rising by Rs 22 to Rs 214, among others. Trading sub-index rose by 6.46 per cent or 57.30 points to 943.79 points. Shareholders of Salt Trading Corporation saw their holdings go up by Rs 203 to Rs 2,950 per unit. Likewise, finance subgroup jumped by 5.57 per cent or 37.60 points to 712.67 points, with share price of ICFC Finance up by Rs 19 to Rs 207, among others. Hydropower sub-index advanced by 4.99 per cent or 52.37 points to 1,102.30 points, with hydropower companies like Chilime up by Rs 35 to Rs 465 and Upper Tamakoshi by Rs 12 to Rs 250. The mutual fund subgroup increased by 4.87 per cent or 0.50 point to 10.77 points, as share price of NIC Asia Growth Fund ascended by 0.42 paisa to Rs 10.10. Non-life insurance sub-index went up by 3.46 per cent or 246.19 points to 7355.17 points due to share price of Himalayan General gaining Rs 17 to Rs 464. Microfinance subgroup added 2.89 per cent or 77.10 points to 2,747.31 points with the share price of Chhimek Laghubitta Bikas Bank going up by Rs 42 to Rs 1,295. Hotels subgroup ascended by 2.38 per cent or 46.62 points to 2,007.79 points as share value of Soaltee increased by six rupees to Rs 201. In the review week, Nepal Life Insurance Co was the leader in terms of weekly turnover with Rs 877.53 million. It was followed by NMB Bank with Rs 652.72 million, Himalayan Distillery with Rs 651.98 million, Shivam Cements with Rs 616.79 million and NIC Asia Bank with Rs 595.18 million. In terms of weekly trading volume, Nepal Bank was the forerunner with 1.592 million of its shares changing hands. Prabhu Bank with 1.553 million shares, NMB Bank with 1.372 million shares, Kumari Bank with 1.343 million shares and Global IME Bank with 1.334 million shares rounded up the top-five in this category. Meanwhile, NMB Bank recorded highest number of transactions — 4,650. It was followed by Nepal Life Insurance Co with 4,161, Global IME Bank with 3,744, Kalika Microcredit Development Bank with 3,522 and NIC Asia Bank with 3,429 transactions.