Kathmandu, February 23

As talks about Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada quitting the government has started to do the rounds, the country’s sole secondary market has created history.

Keeping with the bullish trend of the previous few weeks, Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index soared by 4.85 per cent or 69.56 points today, first trading day of the week, to close at 1504.14 points. With this jump, the index has crossed psychological threshold of 1,500 points as well.

Likewise, the sensitive index, which measures the performance of class ‘A’ stocks, rose by 5.68 per cent or 17.07 points to 317.50 points. Similarly, the float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded also went up by 5.32 per cent or 5.4 points to 106.96 points.

At the end of the day, altogether 8.77 million shares of 178 companies were traded through 30,456 transactions that amounted to Rs 3.61 billion, which is the highest ever at Nepse on a single day.

Among all subgroups, shareholders of trading, banking, development banks and others saw their share value go up notably.

Prakash Rajhaure, an independent share market analyst, said that the current market movement is as expected. “The market is on a bull run firstly due to rumours that the finance minister will soon be quitting the Cabinet and secondly as per the market cycle it is time now for the market to see an upward trend,” he clarified.

However, market reform initiatives have also played a vital role to boost investor sentiment, he added.

A few days ago, Securities Board of Nepal had amended four regulations — related to merchant bankers; securities brokers, traders and market makers; central depository service; and securities listing and trading.

Moreover, the government’s commitment to create an investment friendly environment in the country also played a vital role to boost the morale of the investors, Rajhaure explained.

Against this backdrop, all the sub-indices at Nepse increased today. In fact, two subgroups rose by more than seven per cent, four gained more than three per cent, three increased more than two per cent and the remaining subgroups witnessed growth below two per cent.

The trading subgroup was the highest gainer today, soaring by 8.25 per cent or 73.11 points to land at 959.59 points.

Likewise, banking gained 7.15 per cent or 86.01 points to rest at 1,288.74 points.

Meanwhile, development banks subgroup went up by 4.5 per cent or 84.59 points to 1,966.22 points and the others subgroup rose by 3.42 per cent or 24.63 points to 744.38 points. Likewise, finance sub-index expanded by 3.34 per cent or 22.56 points to 697.63 points, which was followed by hydropower subgroup rising by 3.21 per cent or 33.75 points to 1,083.68 points.

Moreover, mutual fund sub-index ascended by 3.7 per cent or 0.28 point to 10.54 points. Life insurance went up by 2.7 per cent or 192.36 points to 8,666 points and microfinance subgroup also rose by 2.06 per cent or 54.89 points to 2,725.10 points.

Similarly, non-life insurance, manufacturing and hotels sub-indices went up by below two per cent.

Meanwhile, share value of 12 companies increased by more than nine per cent today.

Among them, share value of First Micro Finance Development Bank soared by 9.96 per cent to Rs 618 and NMB Bank increased by 9.93 per cent to Rs 454. Likewise, Swadeshi Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha went up by 9.92 per cent to Rs 1,108 and Kalika Microcredit Development Bank ascended by 9.91 per cent to Rs 1,020.

Moreover, Mega Bank Nepal expanded by 9.91 per cent to Rs 233, Everest Bank Limited Con Pref went up by 9.89 per cent to Rs 622. Likewise, RSDC Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha soared by 9.89 per cent to Rs 622, Nepal SBI Bank went up by 9.79 per cent to Rs 471, ICFC Finance expanded by 9.57 per cent to Rs 206 and Salt Trading Corporation soared by 9.46 per cent to Rs 3,007, today.

Among the losers, Taragaon Regency Hotel’s share price dropped by 5.69 per cent to Rs 315, Barun Hydropower fell by 5.05 per cent to Rs 94 and Panchakanya Mai Hydropower’s share price dropped by four per cent to Rs 96 today.