Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, January 8:

Share trading at the country’s sole secondary market — Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) continued to decline due to the ongoing political crisis. The Nepse index declined by 2.71 points for a second straight week. According to Nepal Stock Exchange Ltd (NSEL), the index closed down at 235.61 points on Friday, from the opening 238.32 points on Monday. The index had dropped by about one point last week.

The weekly share trading analysis reveals that the performance of all major groups including commercial bank, hotel, insurance, finance and development bank were not satisfactory during the week. The manufacturing group was the sole gainer, while the index of trading and other groups remained constant. The group — which had remained constant last week — recorded a marginal growth of 0.84 point. The Nepse index of the group went up to 273.33 points from the opening 272.49 points on Monday.

However, the commercial bank group, which is the largest scrip at the secondary market- suffered a loss of 2.96 points. The group, which had lost by about one point last week, settled at 248.52 points from the opening at 251.48 points on Monday. The hotel group is also a major loser, as it suffered a loss of over 12 points during this week. The Nepse index of the group plummeted to 176.46 points on the closing day from the opening 188.53 points.

Likewise, the finance and the insurance groups also failed to post growth and their Nepse index closed down at 207.87 points and 238.47 points, from the opening 208.52 points and 239.09 points respectively. Both the groups had lost last week also. Among the losers, the development group’s index settled at 202.46 points on Friday from the opening 203.22 points. The group was sole gainer last week.

The trading group and the other group, however, remained constant throughout the week at 142.91 points and 98.87 points respectively. The commercial bank group continued to dominate the Nepse floor as it captured the largest chunk of the total share trading. It captured 93.75 per cent of the total trading, followed by the finance group with 3.51 per cent.

The insurance group was in the third position with 1.39 per cent market share, whereas the hotel group cornered 1.11 per cent and the development bank group contributed 0.27 per cent. The manufacturing group contributed a mere 0.06 per cent of the total trading.

Along with a decline of index, the number of share transaction and traded monetary value also decreased this week compared to the last week. A total of 143,111 share units valued at Rs 34,558,988 were traded through 2299 transactions, against last week’s trading of 1,807,787 shares through 2745 transactions at Rs 39,864,811. Out of the 56 listed companies, only 45 companies saw their transactions during the week.

Lumbini Bank Ltd topped the race in terms of largest number of transaction and share units traded this week. A total of 38,230 shares of the bank were traded through 691 transactions. But, Laxmi Bank Ltd was the frontrunner in monetary value with total traded amount of Rs 7,211,470. The floor remained open for all five working days, where the shares of Nabil Bank Ltd, Standard Chartered Bank Nepal, Himalayan Bank Ltd, Nepal Bangladesh Bank, NIC Bank Ltd, Laxmi Bank Ltd, Kumari Bank Ltd and Lumbini Bank Ltd were traded throughout the week. The shares of Nepal SBI Bank, Machhapuchre Bank Ltd, Nepal Life Insurance Company, Nepal Merchant Banking and Finance and Nepal Development bank were traded only for four days.