Nepse southbound throughout the week
Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) snapped three weeks of bull-run in the week of July 31 to August 4, with the benchmark index plunging by 5.82 per cent or 109.33 points to rest at 1,768.6 points.
The country’s only secondary market, which had dipped slightly on the last trading day of the previous week, was southbound throughout the week. Opening at 1,877.93 points on Sunday, Nepse had dropped 15.17 points by the day’s closing. It continued in the downward trajectory, down 17.35 points on Monday, 18.94 points on Tuesday and 12.75 points on Wednesday. On Thursday, the local bourse plunged by 42.12 points to retreat below the 1,800-point threshold.
Although investor sentiment has taken a dip in the recent days, stock analysts point to the current market movement as normal correction, which was long overdue. It has to be noted that when Nepse had recorded an all-time high of 1,881.45 points on July 27, the benchmark index had surged by a whopping 63.41 per cent or 730.07 points when compared to its level in the beginning of the year.
With the performance of the companies listed in the country’s only secondary market showing impressive growth in the last quarter, stock analysts are optimistic about Nepse’s rebound in the coming days.
Altogether 17.22 million shares of 152 companies worth Rs 7.79 billion had changed hands through 36,390 transactions. The traded amount was 18.28 per cent less than the preceding week when 42,720 transactions had been undertaken in which 25.71 million scrips of 156 firms were traded that amounted to Rs 9.54 billion.
The sensitive index, which gauges the performance of class ‘A’ stocks, dropped 5.83 per cent or 23.59 points to 380.95 points. The float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded also fell by 5.96 per cent or 8.32 points to 131.37 points.
Apart from trading, which continued to hold steady at 202.79 points, all the subgroups landed in the red in the review period.
Hotels subgroup took the biggest fall among the subgroups, with the sub-index plunging by 8.78 per cent or 206.34 points to 2,142.29 points. Share value of Soaltee dropped Rs 37 to Rs 400, that of Oriental was down Rs 41 to Rs 574 and Taragaon Regency plummeted Rs 68 to Rs 285.
Insurance saw the gain of the previous week wiped out as the subgroup dropped 6.44 per cent or 589.13 points to 8,559.02 points. Sagarmatha Insurance fell Rs 240 to Rs 2,210, Life Insurance Co Nepal was down Rs 210 to Rs 3,300, among others.
Banking dived 6.14 per cent or 109.08 points to 1,667.25 points because of commercial banks like Standard Chartered descending Rs 254 to Rs 3,571 and Everest down Rs 182 to Rs 3,300.
At its heels, development banks dropped 6.14 per cent or 120.03 points to 1,833.52 points. Stock price of Swabalamban took a steep dive of Rs 278 to Rs 2,435 and that of Chhimek by Rs 139 to Rs 2091.
Manufacturing continued its freefall that began in the previous week by descending 5.13 per cent or 138.11 points to 2,556.02 points. Unilever Nepal fell Rs 1,396 to Rs 33,130 and Bottlers Nepal (Tarai) lost Rs 963 to Rs 7,001.
Finance dropped 4.1 per cent or 45.51 points to 865.28 points, while hydropower fell 3.96 per cent or 107.08 points to 2,594.46 points. Others too was down 2.67 per cent or 22.27 points to 810.95 points.
Meanwhile, Nepal Bank recorded the highest turnover of Rs 487.24 million, followed by Nepal Bangladesh Bank with Rs 483.14 million, Prime Commercial Bank with Rs 452.44 million, Siddhartha Bank with Rs 436.72 million and Nabil Bank (Promoter Share) with Rs 312.05 million.
Laxmi Value Fund – I topped the chart in terms of trading volume with 3.09 million of its shares changing hands. Prime commercial Bank bagged the title of most number of transactions — 2,069.
