Nepse index edges up

Kathmandu, July 4

Profit-taking in the latter part of the week capped the gains witnessed in the secondary market. Still, investor optimism in the first three trading days supported the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index to rise by 8.58 points or 0.92 per cent week-on-week to rest at 938.96 points, from June 28 to July 2.

Starting the trading week at 930.38 points, the benchmark index had gained 7.62 points by the day’s closing. Positive development in the political front fuelled the upward trajectory for the next two days, as Nepse added 8.33 points and 2.8 points on Monday and Tuesday. However, the initial optimism could not sustain and Nepse shed 3.35 points and 6.82 points on Wednesday and Thursday.

Altogether 3.11 million units of shares of 166 companies worth Rs 1.59 billion were traded in the country’s only secondary market through 9,469 transactions in the trading week. The traded amount was 50.46 per cent higher than the preceding week when 7,435 transactions had been undertaken of 2.77 million scrips of 170 listed firms that amounted to Rs 1.06 billion.

The sensitive index, which gauges the performance of class ‘A’ stocks, rose by a marginal 0.78 point to 199.78 points. Similarly, the float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded also inched up 0.36 point to 66.7 points during the review period.

Hydropower, trading, finance and banking subgroups landed in the red in the week, while the remaining sub-indices recorded gains.

Giving continuity to the previous week’s lead among gainers, insurance subgroup surged by 257.65 points to 4,160.86 points. National Life Insurance’s share value went up by Rs 114 to Rs 1,854 and Surya Life’s by Rs 82 to Rs 673, among others.

Even as Oriental’s scrips were down five rupees to Rs 604, Soaltee gained five rupees to land at Rs 423. This helped the hotels subgroup rise by 13.44 points to 1,852.8 points.

Manufacturing recovered the dip in the preceding week by adding 10.08 points to 1,574.78 points this time around, primarily on the back of Unilever’s shares closing at Rs 20,200 — up Rs 320.

Nepal Telecom’s shares gained five rupees to close at Rs 620, which pushed up the others subgroup 5.87 points to 728.4 points.

Development banks sub-index was up 3.38 points to 770.03 points. Nerude Laghubitta Bikas Bank’s scrips added Rs 22 to rest at Rs 1,195 and Kailash Bikas Bank’s were up eight rupees to Rs 360.

Hydropower subgroup was the top loser in the week, declining by 9.07 points to 2,092.49 points. Though Chilime’s share value went up by Rs 10 to Rs 1,525 and Sanima Mai’s by Rs 19 to Rs 690, Butwal Power’s scrips plummeted by Rs 39 to Rs 605 and Arun Valley lost nine rupees to land at Rs 315.

Bishal Bazaar Co’s scrips slumped by Rs 45 to Rs 2,235, which caused the trading sub-index to slip 3.8 points to 216.74 points.

After inching up 1.94 points in the previous week, finance saw almost all of that gains wiped out as it retreated 1.75 points to 517.33 points.

Banking, the subgroup with the highest stake in the market capitalisation of Nepse, limited its loss to 0.88 point to close at 815.52 points.

Nepal Life Insurance Co was the forerunner in terms of turnover with Rs 166.48 million. Nepal Credit and Commerce Bank with Rs 128.99 million, Life Insurance Co Nepal with Rs 94.74 million, National Life Insurance Co with Rs 89.35 million and Chilime Hydropower with Rs 80.21 million rounded up the top five spots in this category.

Nepal Credit and Commerce Bank took the lead in terms of transactions this week as well, with 626 deals. Meanwhile, Siddhartha Equity Oriented Scheme-I secured top spot in regards to number of shares traded with 236,000 of its scrips changing hands.