Kathmandu, August 5

The secondary market rebounded by 14.05 points or 0.85 per cent in the five days of the trading week  between July 30 to August 3.

Supported by strong growth of sub-indices of hotels, finance and manufacturing sectors, the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index closed at 1,660.58 points for the week against its opening at 1,646.53 points on Sunday.

Narendra Sijapati, former chairman of Stock Brokers’ Association of Nepal (SBAN), said that investors shifted their focus on sectors facing short-supply during the week. “As the listed companies in sectors like manufacturing and hotels have floated limited number of shares compared to other sectors, increased buying pressure for these shares boosted the overall market.”

He added, however, that by scooping up shares of firms with lower stake, investors seemed to be looking to take short-term benefits.

The sub-index of ‘A’ class financial institutions went up by 0.43 per cent or 6.18 points to 1,438.96 points. Share price of commercial banks like Nabil, Nepal SBI and

Everest soared during the week. The share value of Nabil went up by 2.46 per cent to Rs 1,647, that of Nepal SBI went up to Rs 940 with growth of 1.18 per cent and price of Everest rose by 2.48 per cent to Rs 1,405.

Manufacturing sector surged by 3.78 per cent to 2,751.46 points in the week on the back of share price of Himalayan Distillery advancing by 3.11 per cent to Rs 2,015.

However, it was the sub-index of hotels sector that fuelled the market rally in the review period, recording a growth of 9.05 per cent to 2,525.35 points. Share price of all three listed hotels increased significantly. Oriental gained by 24.65 per cent to Rs 966, Soaltee by 4.95 per cent to Rs 382 and share price of Taragaon Regency Hotel went up to Rs 305, with growth of 10.51 per cent.

Sub-index of development banks also landed in the green, closing at 2,087.71 points with a growth of 2.87 per cent. Finance sector rose 8.39 per cent to 818.13 points this week. Following it, sub-indices of others and hydropower also went up. The sub-index of others sector closed at 708 points, up 2.21 per cent and hydropower rose by 1.43 per cent to 1,959.21 points.

Insurance was the only subgroup to land in the red, as share investors looked to book profit from the overheated insurance stocks. Consequently, its sub-index fell by 2.31 per cent to 9,452.4 points. Share price of insurance firms such as Nepal Life declined by 2.32 per cent to Rs 226, and Nepal Insurance Company dropped to Rs 1,640, down 0.97 per cent. In the week, sub-index of trading sector remained unchanged at 214.11 points.

Altogether, 10.5 million unit shares of 167 companies that amounted to Rs 5.25 billion were traded through 44,488 transactions. The total weekly turnover was down 5.05 per cent when compared to the preceding week.

Nepal Grameen Bikas Bank secured top position in terms of turnover with Rs 245.76 million. It was followed by Muktinath Bikas Bank with Rs 223.24 million, Nepal Life Insurance with Rs 192 million and Prabhu Insurance Company with Rs 176.73 million. Sanima Bank rounded up the top five in this category with Rs 166.02 million.

Laxmi Value Fund-1 was the forerunner in terms of trading volume with 1.74 million of its scrips changing hands. Nepal Life Insurance Company topped the chart in terms of number of transactions with 2,556.

New listings

Company                                 Type          Unit

Janata Bank Nepal                    Rights        8,515,005.60

Mission Development Bank       Rights         1,949,250

Tinau Development Bank           Rights        1,194,796.09

Tourism Development Bank        Rights        9,197,712