Kathmandu, March 7

The reappointment of Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada weighed on investor sentiment, causing Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index to plunge by 12.04 per cent or 196.48 points week-on-week to below psychological threshold of 1,450 points in the trading week between March 1 and 5.

“The prime reason for the immense selling pressure was due to reappointment of Minister Khatiwada against the general expectation that his tenure would not be extended in the National Assembly,” explained Prakash Rajhaure, an independent stock analyst. “Share investors rushed to offload their holdings as they worried about the new rules in the offing that would require them to disclose income source for making investments of above Rs one million.”

According to him, large investors had started bringing in foreign money into the share market, which had been on a bull run and the trend has now stopped completely.

However, he clarified that the market could rebound in the coming weeks if the investor sentiment is lifted.

In the review period, the weekly turnover dropped by 12.93 per cent compared to the previous week to Rs 16.22 billion. In the previous week, the market had witnessed transactions worth Rs 18.62 billion.

The trading volume also decreased to 38.43 million stock changing hands this week from 44.94 million in the preceding week.

The secondary market had opened on Sunday with the benchmark index at 1,632.18 points. It had plummeted by 40.82 points by the end of the first trading day and plunged by another 96.06 points on Monday — the highest single-day drop in the local bourse’s history.

While the market made a slight recovery of 14.37 points on Tuesday, the Nepse index reversed course again to slide by 68.47 points on Wednesday and by 5.50 points on Thursday to close the week at 1,435.70 points.

All the subgroups landed in the red zone in the review week.

Microfinance sub-index was the biggest loser of the week, slumping by 16.09 per cent or 442.25 points to 2,305.05 points. Share price of Chhimek Laghubitta Bikas Bank decreased by Rs 225 to Rs 1,070.

Non-life insurance sub-index dropped by 15.15 per cent or 1,114.48 points to 6,240.68 points, weighed down by share price of insurance companies like Everest down by Rs 62 to Rs 411 and IME General by Rs 95 to Rs 417.

Life insurance subgroup fell by 13.91 per cent or 1,354.73 points to 8,386.58 points. The share price of Nepal Life Insurance Co was down Rs 212 to Rs 1,251 and Life Insurance Co Nepal by Rs 238 to Rs 1,500.

The hotels sub-index plunged by 12.21 per cent or 245.20 points to 1,762.59 points. Share value of Taragaon Regency slumped by Rs 44 to Rs 267 and Soaltee by Rs 22 to Rs 179.

Close on its heels, banking subgroup plummeted by 12.03 per cent or 173.21 points to 1,266.94 points.

Everest Bank lost Rs 129 to Rs 751 and Standard Chartered Bank by Rs 137 to Rs 700.

New listings

Company

Type

Units

Jyoti Bikas Bank

Bonus

3,952,549.12

Kanchan Development Bank

Bonus

531,300.00

Laxmi Bank

Bonus

8,920,508.64

Nabil Bank

Bonus

10,856,520.00

NMB Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha

Right

2,430,093.75

Sabaiko Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha

Bonus

214,500.00

Siddhartha Bank

Bonus

9,001,626,02

Source: Nepse

The manufacturing subgroup retreated by 11.91 per cent or 386.43 points to 2,856.73 points. Stock price of Unilever Nepal descended by Rs 1,777 to Rs 21,553 and Bottlers Nepal (Tarai) by Rs 1,145 to Rs 7,423.

Similarly, trading subgroup went down by 9.30 per cent or 87.81 points to 855.98 points, as the share price of Salt Trading Corporation slipped by Rs 285 to Rs 2,665 and Bishal Bazar Company by Rs 149 to Rs 1,792.

Others subgroup dropped by 9.21 per cent or 73.66 points to 725.77 points. Nepal Telecom’s share value went down by Rs 61 to Rs 658 and Citizen Investment Trust by Rs 353 to Rs 2,680.

Hydropower sub-index fell by 8.96 per cent or 98.81 points to 1,003.49 points, with share price of hydropower companies like Chilime down Rs 56 to Rs 409 and Upper Tamakoshi by Rs 15 to Rs 235.

The development banks subgroup lost 7.78 per cent or 160.57 points to 1,903.14 points as the share value of Jyoti Bikas Bank descended by Rs 25 to Rs 189.

Similarly, mutual funds sub-index edged down by 3.44 per cent or 0.37 points to 10.39 points and finance subgroup dipped by 1.48 per cent or 10.58 points to 702.09 points.

In the review week, Nepal Life Insurance Co was the leader in terms of weekly traded amount and number of transactions, recording total turnover of Rs 1.45 billion through 6,325 transactions.

NMB Bank with Rs 872.84 million, NIC Asia Bank with Rs 775.66 million, Global IME Bank with Rs 565.27 million and Himalayan Distillery with Rs 517.93 million were the other companies that rounded up the top five in terms of weekly traded amount.

NMB Bank with 4,929, NIC Asia Bank with 4,469, Global IME Bank with 2,232 and Nabil Bank with 3,339 transactions were the other companies with most number of transactions in the review period.

In terms of weekly trading volume, Global IME Bank was the forerunner with 1.86 million of its shares changing hands. It was followed by NMB Bank with 1.82 million shares, Prabhu Bank with 1.62 million shares, Nepal Bank with 1.38 million shares and NIC Asia Bank with 1.26 million shares.