Kathmandu, May 13

The country’s sole secondary market ended the trading week prior to the local elections in the green territory, although the loss witnessed by the banking subgroup — the share market heavyweight — capped the gain of Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index to 5.4 points or 0.33 per cent between May 7 and 11.

Both the number of transactions and trading volume, however, dropped in the review period. Share market analysts attributed the drop to the election fervour and many share investors possibly returning to their hometown for the first phase of local polls scheduled for Sunday.

Opening at 1,653.18 points for the week on Sunday, the benchmark index had plunged by 24.20 points by the day’s closing. However, the local bourse reversed course starting Monday, salvaging the loss over the remainder of the week. While hotel subgroup had led the gainers on Monday, stock investors seemed to make a beeline for stocks of hydropower companies on Tuesday and Thursday.

Nepse index recorded a rise of 8.32 points on Monday, 13.51 points on Tuesday and 7.77 points on Thursday to end the week at 1,658.58 points. The country’s sole secondary market remained closed on Wednesday as the country celebrated Buddha Jayanti.

The sensitive index, which gauges the performance of class ‘A’ stocks, rose by 0.24 point or 0.07 per cent to 353.79 points. The float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded also inched up by 0.15 point or 0.12 per cent to 122.78 points.

Altogether, 4.99 million shares of 153 companies that amounted to Rs 2.80 billion were traded through 24,471 transactions during the week. The traded amount was 17.57 per cent lower than the preceding week when 27,706 transactions of 5.38 million shares of 154 firms worth Rs 3.40 billion had been undertaken.

Except for banking, which slipped by 9.32 points or 0.62 per cent to land at 1,500.86 points, all the remaining subgroups witnessed gains, with hydropower taking the lead.

With hydropower companies like Sanima Mai advancing by 5.72 per cent to Rs 1,195, Chilime rising by 6.03 per cent to Rs 896 and Api up 7.72 per cent to Rs 600, the subgroup surged by 115.25 points or 5.78 per cent to 2,108.59 points.

Hotels rebounded strongly from last week’s plunge of 2.33 per cent by ascending 66.34 points or 3.03 per cent to 2,258.06 points. Stock price of Soaltee went up by 3.48 per cent to Rs 357, that of Oriental by 3.03 per cent to Rs 747 and of Taragaon Regency by 0.39 per cent to Rs 258.

Adding to the past week’s rise of 0.38 per cent, others climbed 19.38 points or 2.86 per cent to 697.02 points, primarily on the back of Nepal Telecom’s share value going up by 2.96 per cent to Rs 660.

The gain of rest of the subgroups was limited to less than one per cent. Development banks rose by 16.24 points or 0.83 per cent to 1,978.9 points; trading inched up by 1.41 points or 0.67 per cent to 212.76 points; manufacturing went up 13.31 points or 0.61 per cent to 2,203.34 points; finance rose by 3.91 points or 0.51 per cent to 774.22 points; and insurance went up by 37.34 points or 0.42 per cent to 8,922.16 points.

Meanwhile, Nepal SBI Bank topped the chart in terms of turnover with Rs 176 million, followed by Sunrise Bank with Rs 137.06 million, Sanima Mai Hydropower with Rs 135.81 million, Nepal Life Insurance Co with Rs 107.80 million and Prabhu Bank with Rs 85.16 million.

World Merchant Banking and Finance Ltd (Promoter) was the forerunner in terms of trading volume, with 497,000 of its shares changing hands. Arun Kabeli Power retained its top position in the review period like the past week with regard to most number of transactions — 2,336.