Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, February 12:

Buoyed by a robust performance of commercial bank group, share trading at the country’s sole secondary market — Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) — registered a healthy growth for yet another week and went up to land at 6.27 points. The Nepse index opened at 251.02 points on Monday and closed up at 257.29 points.

The strong performance of the other group had led the increment in the last three weeks, but a good comeback of commercial bank this week has resulted in overall growth of the index. The weekly share trading analysis reveals that the commercial bank group registered a growth of 20.88 points in a week. Hotel, insurance and development bank groups also posted growth in their respective indices.

The Nepse index of the commercial bank group, which is the largest scrip at the Nepse, started at 259.98 points on Monday and climbed up to 270.86 points on the closing day. The group had posted a growth of 3.36 points last week also. The hotel group registered a growth and settled at 172.63 points from the opening 172.25 points. It had gained last week, too.

The insurance group also posted a growth this week. The Nepse index of the group went up to 238.73 points from the opening 238.43 points on Monday. The group had lost last week.

The development bank, which recovered last week, also recorded a healthy growth of 5.77 points.

However, the other group, which has been leading the Nepse floor for last couple of weeks, suffered a heavy loss this week. The Nepse index of the group dropped by 7.62 points and closed down at 340.71 points. The group opened at 348.33 points on Monday.

The finance group, which had gained last week, suffered a marginal loss of 0.94 point and its index settled at 206.68 points on the closing day from the opening 207.62 points. The trading group and the manufacturing group, however, remained constant throughout the week at 98.87 points and 273.97 points respectively. According to Nepal Stock Exchange Ltd, the total transaction value stood at Rs 64,769,966 this week from 1,558 transactions of 248,726 share units throughout the week. However, the last week’s total trading value was Rs 17,565,524 through 1,213 transactions and 63,103 shares.

Out of 68 listed companies, 64 companies saw their transaction this week.

The commercial bank group continued to dominate the floor as it captured the largest chunk of the total share trading. However, its share slightly weakened in comparison to other weeks. It captured 53.27 per cent of the total share trading, followed by the finance group with 43.32 per cent. The insurance group was in the third position with 1.39 per cent market share, whereas the other group cornered 0.87 per cent and the development bank group contributed 0.55 per cent. The hotel group contributed 0.39 per cent, while the manufacturing group had a 0.15 per cent and the trading group 0.07 per cent share of the total trading.

Lumbini Bank Ltd topped the race as a single largest trader in terms of number of transaction with 430 transactions, while Nepal Merchant Banking and Finance secured the first position in share units and monetary value. A total of 120540 shares of the company were traded at Rs 24,833,590.

The floor remained open for all five working days, where the shares of Himalayan Bank Ltd, Nepal SBI Bank, Nepal Bangladesh Bank, Everest Bank Ltd, Bank of Kathmandu, NIC Bank Ltd, Laxmi Bank Ltd, Machhapuchre Bank Ltd, Kumari Bank Ltd, Lumbini Bank Ltd, and Life Insurance Company were traded throughout the week.