Kathmandu, December 24
The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index fell by 15.39 points or 0.82 per cent in the trading week between December 18 and 22.
According to Chhote Lal Rauniyar, weak investor sentiment, negative news related to the secondary market in the media and persistent liquidity pressure in the country is behind the fluctuation in the benchmark index.
"As multiple factors have continued to affect the market over the past 15 months, the market will take some time to follow a northward trend. However, investors have a huge opportunity to double their investment as the market is currently hovering in the red zone. The risk of losing investments has decreased to just 20 per cent at present, indicating a possibility of huge returns for fundamental investors," he shared.
The sensitive index, which measures performance of class 'A' stocks, decreased by 0.27 per cent or 0.98 points to 367.06 points in the review period. The float index that gauges performances of shares actually traded also slipped by 0.78 per cent to 131.05 points.
Altogether 15.05 million shares were traded during the review week through 124,037 transactions that amounted to Rs 4.96 billion. The weekly turnover decreased by over four per cent compared to the previous week when 16.93 million shares had changed hands through 91,777 transactions that totalled Rs 5.16 billion. The average daily turnover fell to Rs 991 million this week against Rs 1.03 billion in the preceding week.
The benchmark index had opened at 1,882.60 points on Sunday and fell by 27.54 points to close at 1,885.06 points for the day. The market rose by 3.83 points on Monday to 1,858.89 points before gaining 14.22 points on Tuesday to settle at 1,873.11 points. On Wednesday, the market fell by 5.89 points to 1,867.22 points, followed by a dip of 0.01 points on Thursday to settle at 1,867.21 points for the week.
Apart from others, all the subgroups landed in the red this week. The others sub-index inched up by 2.65 per cent or 39.17 points to 1,514.89 points Meanwhile, finance subgroup dropped by 4.31 per cent or 65.81 points to 1,460.84 points; development banks lost 2.40 per cent or 80.20 points to 3,343.57 points; investment fell by 1.15 per cent or 0.64 points to 54.98 points; manufacturing and processing fell by 0.82 per cent or 40.64 points to 4,896.43 points; non-life insurance lost 0.91 per cent or 67.74 points to 7,395.38 points, hotel and tourism fell by 1.01 per cent or 27.28 points to 2682.25 points, while hydropower lost 2.58 per cent or 51.31 points to 1,939.21 points.
Banking, the subgroup with the highest weightage on the market capitalisation, landed at 1,276.87 points, down 0.66 per cent or 8.51 points. Mutual funds dipped 0.68 per cent or 0.09 point to 13.18 points; microfinance shed 1.41 per cent or 60.71 points to 4,244.74 points; life insurance edged down 0.02 per cent or 2.09 points to 9,062.66 points; and trading slipped 1.25 per cent or 22.98 points to 1,808.28 points.
A version of this article appears in the print on December 25, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
