Kathmandu, January 9

The country’s only secondary market was mostly buoyant in the first trading week of 2016, with the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index clocking a weekly gain of 12.76 points or 1.11 per cent, from January 3 to 7.

The benchmark index had started the trading week on Sunday at 2015’s close of 1,151.38 points and rose by 9.46 points by the day’s closing.

However, the initial optimism could not sustain and the local bourse dropped 6.22 points and another 7.85 points on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.

On Wednesday, though, Nepse recovered some of the loss of the previous two days by adding 3.12 points and surged by 14.25 points on Thursday to settle at 1,164.14 points for the week.

Stating that the market movement is not in tandem with the deteriorating economic situation, CEO of NMB Capital Shreejesh Ghimire said, “It would be wise for investors to be very careful while investing in shares in this scenario.”

According to him, investors should look into price-to-earnings ratio or P/E ratio, which is basically the ratio for valuing a company that measures its current share price relative to its per-share earnings.

And secondly, they should analyse price-to-book ratio or P/B ratio, he advised. This is the ratio used to compare a stock’s market value to its book value. It is calculated by dividing the current closing price of the stock by the latest quarter’s book value per share.

He opined the current trend seen in the stock market is primarily being governed by lack of better investment avenues in the country and that the correction in the market can only be witnessed with the revival of interest rates of commercial banks or if the political situation further deteriorates.

Altogether, 4.05 million shares of 151 companies worth Rs 2.55 billion were traded through 21,456 transactions during the week.

The traded amount was 38.91 per cent higher than the preceding week, when the local bourse had remained open for only four days owing to a public holiday last Wednesday. In the preceding week, 16,125 transactions of 3.90 million scrips of 153 firms that amounted to Rs 1.84 billion had been undertaken.

The sensitive index, which gauges the performance of class ‘A’ stocks, rose 1.41 per cent to 250.02 points. Likewise, the float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded also went up 0.87 per cent to 82.92 points during the review period.

Among the subgroups, manufacturing, trading and finance landed in the red, while the rest of the subgroups witnessed gains.

Others subgroup led the pack of gainers, surging by 3.82 per cent to 798.88 points because of Nepal Telecom’s share value rising by Rs 25 to Rs 680.

After recording losses in the previous weeks, hydropower managed to ascend 3.23 per cent to 1,984.72 points. This was on the back of Chilime’s share price up Rs 24 to Rs 1,198 and Sanima Mai surging by Rs 88 to Rs 841.

Development banks gained 1.95 per cent to land at 1,105.03 points. Nagbeli’s share value went up by Rs 80 to Rs 3,525 and Swabalamban rose by Rs 72 to Rs 1,920, among others.

The insurance sub-index witnessed a rise of 0.74 per cent to 5,357.64 points on the back of Shikhar surging by Rs 52 to Rs 1,350 and Sagarmatha up Rs 74 to Rs 1,070.

Adding to the previous week’s gain of 0.91 per cent, the subgroup of commercial banks went up 0.65 per cent to 1,052.81 points. Nepal Investment Bank’s share price went up by Rs 78 to Rs 770 and that of Nepal SBI Bank by Rs 10 to Rs 1,500.

Soaltee Hotel’s share value went up by three rupees to Rs 323 and Taragaon Regency by seven rupees to Rs 216, which in turn helped the subgroup inch up 0.58 per cent to 1,714.59 points. The gain was muted because of Oriental’s stock price dropping by Rs 12 to Rs 410.

Meanwhile, the stock price of Bishal Bazaar Co plunged by Rs 108 to Rs 2,000, which dragged the trading subgroup down 4.38 per cent to 198.85 points.

Similarly, Unilever’s share price took a beating by Rs 200 to Rs 25,500, which weighed on the manufacturing sub-index. The subgroup recorded a loss of 0.56 per cent to 1,848.71 points.

After edging up 0.03 per cent in the previous week, finance wound up in the red again this time around, dipping 0.15 per cent to 573.43 points.

NIC Asia Bank topped the chart in terms of turnover with Rs 291.04 million, followed by National Life Insurance with Rs 150.03 million, Himalayan General Insurance with Rs 95.36 million, Prime Life Insurance with Rs 80.48 million and Premier Insurance with Rs 79.92 million.

National Hydropower was the forerunner in terms of shares traded with 363,000 of its scrips changing hands, while Api Power Co secured the top spot in terms of transactions, clocking 3,950 deals.

Second Nepse Corporate Bull’s Race held

KATHMANDU: Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse), on Saturday, organised the Second Corporate Bull’s Race on the occasion of its annual day in a bid to create awareness on capital market and as a part of its corporate social responsibility. Over 400 representatives of Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON), Nepse, Central Depository System and Clearing Ltd, stock brokers and 120 listed companies participated in the Bull’s Race, according to a statement. The race was jointly inaugurated by Chairman of SEBON Rewat Bahadur Karki, Nepse Board Chairman Ramji Regmi and General Manager of Nepse Sitaram Thapaliya. The race started from Nepse’s office in Bhadrakali and passed through Sundhara, Newroad, Jamal, Kantipath, Kesharmahal, Durbarmarg, Ratnapark and ended at Nepse’s office. Kumar Ghimire of Online Securities completed the five kilometre race at 17:40 minutes and won the first prize of Rs 30,000. Similarly, Nabin Adhikari of Linch Securities and Iraj Kumar Raut of Shreehari Securities received second and third prize of Rs 20,000 and Rs 10,000, respectively, as per the statement.