Kathmandu, January 21
The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index edged up by 29.42 points or 1.37 per cent, clocking the fourth consecutive week-onweek gain in the trading week between January 17 and 19.
The sensitive index, which measures performance of class 'A' stocks, increased by 0.92 per cent to 415.05 points in the review period.
The float index that gauges performances of shares actually traded also edged up 1.34 per cent or 2.03 points to settle at 153.31 in the review week.
Altogether 33.43 million shares were traded during the review week through 191,732 transactions that amounted to more than Rs 11.69 billion.
The weekly turnover slumped by over 51 per cent compared to the previous week when 64.10 million shares had changed hands through 343,088 transactions that totalled Rs 23.91 billion.
It may be noted that the market was open for just three days in the review week compared to four trading days in the previous week. In this regard, the average daily turnover in the past week was Rs 5.97 billion and it fell to Rs 3.89 billion this week.
As the market remained closed on Sunday in celebration of Maghe Sankranti and also on Monday as the country mourned the tragic crash of a Yeti Airlines aircraft in Pokhara, the benchmark index had opened at 2,149.39 points on Tuesday. It had gained 32.72 points to close at 2,182.11 points for the day. On Wednesday, the Nepse index fell by 9.01 points before gaining 5.71 points on Thursday to settle at 2,178.81 points for the trading week.
Most of the subgroups, apart from banking, manufacturing and processing, and trading, landed in the green this week.
Banking, the subgroup with the highest weightage in the market capitalisation, landed at 1,401.64 points, down 0.37 per cent or 5.18 points; manufacturing and processing sub group fell by 1.21 per cent or 64.61 points to 5,292.49 points; and trading slumped by 4.37 per cent or 105.61 points to settle at 2,312.30 points.
Meanwhile, hydropower led the pack of gainers, advancing by 7.03 per cent or 117.63 points to 2,706.07 points, followed by investment, which was up 3.83 per cent to 70.79 points. Hotels and tourism jumped 3.14 per cent or 100.57 points to 3300.05 points; development banks by 3.03 per cent or 115.65 points to 3,930.15 points; mutual funds climbed 2.26 per cent or 0.33 points to 14.96 points, finance rose by 2.25 per cent or 39.90 points to settle at 1,813 points; others gained 1.52 per cent or 23.57 points to 1,576.03 points; non-life insurance saw an increase of 0.43 per cent or 39.68 points to 9,213.70 points, microfinance jumped by 0.40 per cent or 19.46 points to 4,828.58 points; and life insurance gained 0.20 per cent or 20.94 points to settle at 10,713 points in the trading week.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 21, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
