Kathmandu, December 9

The secondary market index slightly fell in the face of the second phase of elections. The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index dipped by 1.13 points or 0.07 per cent to land at 1,536.54 points in the week between December 3 and 7.

The market remained open for just three days against the normal five trading days during the week. The secondary market remained closed on Sunday due to Udhauli Parba and on Thursday due to public holiday for second phase of provincial and parliamentary elections.

Along with Nepse index, sensitive and float indices also slipped in the review period. The sensitive index fell to 323.67 points, down 0.59 points or 0.18 per cent and float index shed 0.02 points or 0.02 per cent to rest at 110.42 points.

The market opened at 1,537.67 points on Monday and closed at 1,526.77 points at the end of the day, down 10.9 points. The local bourse followed the same trend on Tuesday and rested at 1,524.87 points. Even as

the market rose by 11.67 points on Wednesday, it was unable to offset the losses witnessed in the previous two trading days.

Dhruba Timilsina, chief executive officer of Siddhartha Capital, said, “With the elections now over, we can hope for a stable government and economic growth, which will have a positive impact on the capital market as well. It will bring new opportunities for investors too.”

However, Timilsina believes that investor sentiment is highly guided by speculations and hearsay. “Investor sentiment and market movement can be quite unpredictable sometimes. The supply of shares also affects the market and we must wait to see how the situation pans out,” he said.

Ishwari Rimal, chief executive officer of Nepal Stock House, also expressed hope that the market would go on a bull run in the coming days. “There may be slight fluctuations, but ultimately we expect Nepse to rise because everybody is seeking economic prosperity and political stability in the country,” Rimal stated.

He informed that the total transaction amount decreased during the trading week because most investors were involved in the elections.

Along with the banking sector, the sub-indices of others, insurance and trading sector landed in the red during the review period.

The banking sector fell by 2.83 points or 0.21 per cent to 1,309 points in the week. Share price of Nabil Bank

fell by 0.94 per cent to Rs 1,168 per unit and share price of Everest Bank decreased by 0.99 per cent to Rs 1,195 per unit.

The sub-index of others group decreased by 8.39 points or 0.94 per cent to 883.53 points. Share price of Nepal Telecom decreased by 0.99 per cent to Rs 895 per unit.

Similarly, the insurance sector landed at 8,128.65 points, losing 8.56 points or 0.1 per cent in the review period. Likewise, the trading sector slipped by 3.8 points or 0.18 per cent to 205.24 points.

Meanwhile, the manufacturing sector went up to 2,438.89 points, increasing 8.57 points or 0.35 per cent. Likewise, the sub-index of hotels surged by 1.35 per cent or 29.45 points to 2,205.51 points.

The sub-index of hydropower went up by 17.27 points or 0.83 per cent to 2,096.03 points in the review period. Likewise, the finance group went up to 765.14 points, increasing by 2.85 points or 0.37 per cent in the week.

The development banks group and microfinance sector also increased in the review period. Sub-index of development banks rose by 6.37 points or 0.36 per cent to 1,781.46 points and the sub-index of microfinance went up by 11.13 points or 0.59 per cent to 1,874.77 points in the week.

Altogether, 3.34 million shares of 173 companies worth Rs 1.81 billion were traded through 16,165 transactions during the week. The traded amount was 50.37 per cent less than the total weekly turnover of the previous week.

Butwal Power Company secured the top position in terms of total turnover with Rs 151.45 million. It was followed by Shikhar Insurance Company with Rs 132.54 million, Prime Life Insurance Company (Promoter) with Rs 95 million, Nepal Telecom with Rs 50.66 million and Nepal Life Insurance Company with Rs 49.72 million.

Butwal Power Company topped the list in terms of trading volume as well with 205,000 of its shares changing hands and Himalayan Power Partner was the forerunner in terms of number of transactions — 1,205.