Kathmandu, November 19

The liquidity crunch in the market caused the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index to fall 39.09 points or 2.3 per cent to settle at 1,658.08 points, in the trading week of November 13 to 17.

The benchmark index had opened at 1,697.17 points on Sunday and inched up 2.83 points by the day’s closing. Nepse added another 6.28 points on Monday, but saw the gains nearly wiped out over the next two days as Nepse index shed 4.37 points and 3.01 points on Tuesday and Wednesday. The local bourse plunged by 40.82 points on Thursday on profit-booking.

In total, 5.29 million shares of 153 companies worth Rs 5.02 billion changed hands through 24,119 transactions during the review period. The traded amount was 76.62 per cent higher than the preceding week when 18,317 transactions of 4.07 million scrips of 146 firms that amounted to Rs 2.84 billion had been undertaken.

The sensitive index, which gauges the performance of class ‘A’ stocks, dropped by 8.43 points or 2.3 per cent to 358.59 points. Likewise, the float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded also fell by 3.29 points or 2.59 per cent to 123.55 points.

While trading remained stationary at 202.79 points, manufacturing was the only subgroup to manage to land in the green during the week. Manufacturing sub-index inched up by 16.54 points or 0.74 per cent to 2,262.32 points buoyed by Unilever Nepal’s share value going up 1.5 per cent to Rs 30,100.

Adding to the previous week’s plunge of 4.57 per cent, hydropower continued its freefall by slumping 123.46 points or 5.53 per cent to 2,109.96 points. Chilime’s share value plunged by 6.35 per cent to Rs 1,136, while that of Sanima Mai’s dropped by 3.03 per cent to Rs 896.

Development banks were down 57.65 points or 3.21 per cent to 1,735.27 points. Share price of Chhimek fell by 3.58 per cent to Rs 1,967 and of Swabhalamban dropped 4.79 per cent to Rs 2,285.

Banking took a beating of 41.82 points or 2.63 per cent to 1,550.61 points. Shareholders of Standard Charted saw the value of their scrips drop 4.81 per cent to Rs 3,070 and of Nepal SBI lost 5.04 per cent to Rs 1,595.

Hotels trailed close behind, with a drop of 49.84 points or 2.25 per cent to 2,166.46 points. Soaltee fell 2.63 per cent to Rs 407 and Oriental was down 1.94 per cent to Rs 505.

Compared to past week’s dive of 4.1 per cent, insurance subgroup fared relatively better this time around by limiting its loss to 120.3 points or 1.37 per cent. Insurance firms like Nepal Life dropped 2.7 per cent to Rs 3,600, among others.

Others shed 1.4 5 points or 0.19 per cent to 747.33 points and finance dipped 1.41 points or 0.18 per cent to 797.5 points.

Meanwhile, Civil Bank maintained its lead in terms of trading volume with 518,000 of its scrips changing hands. Everest Bank was the forerunner with regard to weekly turnover of Rs 1.41 billion and number of transactions — 2,852.

The other listed companies to make it to the list of top five in terms of turnover were National Life Insurance with Rs 471.08 million, Shikhar Insurance with Rs 211.86 million, Siddhartha Bank with Rs 173.22 million and Bank of Kathmandu Lumbini with Rs 167.03 million.