Kathmandu, April 13

The country’s sole secondary market bid adieu to Nepali year 2075 BS on a bullish note, propelled by notices of annual general meetings publicised by commercial banks and their announcements related to rights and bonus shares and dividends to investors.

Consequently, the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index, which has seen week-on-week growth in recent weeks jumped by 1.61 per cent or 18.82 points in the trading week between April 7 and 11.

“After a long time, commercial banks are leading the secondary market. So investors are now confident that the benchmark index will rise in the coming days,” said Radha Pokharel, chairperson of Nepal Pujibazar Laganikarta Sangh.

“Investor confidence has been further boosted by the conducive environment created by the government,” she said.

However, share investors continue to face problems in managing funds from banks and financial institutions to invest in the secondary market, she added.

Similar to Nepse, sensitive index also went up by 2.04 per cent or 5.07 points to 253.64 points and float index rose by 2.03 per cent or 1.73 points to 86.91 points.

In the review period, weekly turnover surged by 43.23 per cent as compared to the previous week to Rs 2.99 billion. In the previous week, the market had witnessed turnover of Rs 2.08 billion.

Likewise, the daily average turnover also went up to Rs 598.59 million, which is an increment of 43.23 per cent in comparison to the previous week when it stood at Rs 417.92 million.

The secondary market had opened at 1,165.02 points on Sunday and had soared by 17.16 points by the end of the trading day. It went up by 9.32 points on Monday. Thereafter the benchmark index bobbed — down by 10.59 points on Tuesday, up 3.52 points on Wednesday and dipping again by 0.59 point on Thursday to close the week at 1,184.02 points.

In the review week, banking, life insurance, microfinance, non-life insurance, development banks and finance subgroups landed in the green zone. The trading subgroup did not witness any tran saction and remained constant at 244.89 points.

The banking sub-index led the pack of gainers by surging 2.66 per cent or 27.33 points to 1,052.12 points. This was due to the share price of Standard Chartered Bank going up by Rs 17 to Rs 591.

The life insurance subgroup increased by 1.80 per cent or 106.34 points to land at 5,991.53 points with the share price of Nepal Life Insurance rising by six rupees to Rs 1,095.

Similarly, microfinance subgroup also went up by 1.66 per cent or 22.83 points to 1,395.16 points and non-life insurance sub-index rose by 1.45 per cent or 77.86 points to land at 5,435.72 points.

Likewise, the development banks subgroup gained 1.22 per cent or 17.90 points to land at 1,479.69 points and the finance subgroup inched up by 0.36 per cent or 2.22 points to rest at 618.12 points.

On the other hand, manufacturing sub-index dropped by 3.44 per cent or 70.61 points to 1,981.75 points with the share price of Unilever Nepal falling by Rs 1,459 to Rs 18,241.

Similarly, the hydropower subgroup descended by 1.21 per cent or 14.01 points to 1,138.74 points and others sub-index decreased by 0.33 per cent or 2.34 points to 705.70 points and hotels sub-index dipped by 0.26 per cent or 4.67 points to rest at 1,729.52 points.

In the review week, NIC Asia Bank was the leader in terms of weekly turnover with Rs 252.18 million. It was followed by NMB Bank with Rs 177.22 million, Kumari Bank with Rs 150.92 million, Neco Insurance with Rs 130.65 million and Nepal Bank with Rs 120.56 million.

In terms of weekly trading volume, Kumari Bank took the lead with 588,000 of its shares changing hands. NIC Asia Bank with 544,000 shares, NMB Bank with 530,000 shares, NCC Bank with 478,000 shares and Kumari Bank (Promoter Share) with 403,000 shares were the other top firms to record high trading volume.

Meanwhile, Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower topped the chart in terms of number of transactions — 2,470. It was followed by NIC Asia Bank with 2,236, NMB Bank with 1,601, Kumari Bank with 1,502 and Universal Power Company with 1,328 transactions.

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