Kathmandu, April 14

The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index, increased by 27.16 points or 2.17 per cent to 1,277.55 points during the trading week between April 8 and 12.

“The rise this week is normal considering the weeks-long bearish trend recently,” said Ambika Prasad Poudel, chairman of Nepal Investors’ Forum.

“In recent times, the Nepse had plunged due to the fear among investors of losing their investment,” Poudel said, adding that investors at present are in a wait-and-see mode in anticipation of some favourable government policies and an investment-friendly environment.

“What we have to understand is that the share market is always fluctuating. Continuous rise or fall is not possible,” informed Poudel.

The country’s sole secondary bourse was mostly upbeat in the review week. The benchmark index had opened at 1,250.39 points on Sunday and surged by 44.26 points by the day’s closing. On Monday and Tuesday, Nepse reversed course by shedding 6.87 points and dropping by 17.55 points, respectively. This was mostly as share investors sought to book profits. The local bourse ended the week in an optimistic note though, rising by 3.10 points on Wednesday and up 4.22 points on Thursday to settle at 1,277.55 points for the week.

Similarly, the sensitive and float indices also went up. The sensitive index, which measures the performance of class ‘A’ stocks, rose by 5.56 points or 2.08 per cent to rest at 272.45 points. Similarly, the float

index that measures the performance of shares actually traded also went up by 1.87 points or 2.07 per cent to rest at 92.12 points.

Among the sub-groups, besides development banks and finance that landed in red, all the remaining eight sub-groups recorded gains.

In the week, development banks sub-group went down by 8.60 points or 0.57 per cent to 1,492.18 points and finance company sub-index also declined by 2.12 points or 0.32 per cent to 648.60 points.

Meanwhile, the insurance sub-group led the pack of gainers. It went up by 355.51 points or 6.12 per cent to 6,161.08 points. Likewise, the microfinance sub-index also rose by 68 points or 4.85 per cent  to 1,477.84 points.

Similarly, the trading sub-group increased by 7.60 points or 5.76 per cent to end the week at 209.36 points and the others sub-group surged by 17.88 points or 2.56 per cent to 713.69 points.

The hotels sub-group, meanwhile, also witnessed a rise of 44.08 points or 2.42 per cent to 1,859.99 points. Likewise, the banking sub-group was up by 14.49 points or 1.29 per cent to 1,134.04 points and the hydropower sub-index saw an

increment of 14.09 points or 0.84 per cent to 1,511.87 points. The manufacturing sub-group also climbed up by 12.74 points or 0.56 per cent to rest at 2,264.28 points.

Altogether, 8.20 million shares of 183 companies worth Rs 2.95 billion were traded through 36,705 transactions during the week. The traded amount was 73.92 per cent higher than the total weekly turnover of the previous week, which was recorded at Rs 1.70 billion. In the past week, 5.45 million shares of 180 companies had changed hands through 27,633 transactions.

In terms of weekly turnover, Bank of Kathmandu (Promoter share) was at the top with Rs 122.94 million. It was followed by Nabil Bank with Rs 100. 95 million, Nabil Bank (Promoter share) with Rs 79.99 million, Standard Chartered Bank with Rs 76.39 million and Prabhu Insurance with Rs 70.55 million.

Bank of Kathmandu (Promoter share) also topped chart in terms of trading volume with 580,000 of its shares changing hands. Meanwhile, Premier Insurance was the forerunner with regards to number of

transactions — 1,549.

NEW LISTINGS

Company

Type

Units

Api Power Co

Bonus

840,000.00

Civil Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha

Bonus

47,250.00

Janaki Finance

Bonus

615,646.00

Lumbini General Insurance

Bonus

1,000,000.00

Nagbeli Laghubitta Bikas Bank

Bonus

240,046.15

Prime Commercial Bank

Bonus

17,078,666.89

Prudential Insurance

Rights

1,283,040

Sunrise Bank

Bonus

10,633,768.50

Tinau Bikas Bank

Bonus

460,849.92

Source: Nepse