Nepse rebounds by 18 points

Kathmandu, July 8

The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index rebounded by 18.3 points or 1.17 per cent in the trading week between July 2 to 6, on expectations of a pro-market Monetary Policy.

Investor sentiment got a major boost during the week as Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the central monetary authority of the country, is unveiling the monetary policy for next fiscal year 2017-18 this week.

According to Narendra Sijapati, the former chairman of Stock Brokers Association of Nepal, share investors have pinned their hopes on the upcoming monetary policy addressing the credit crunch issue. “Moreover, investors have been suffering due to higher interest rates, and they are hoping that

the market regulator will help bring the situation under control,” he added, explaining the two major factors for investor optimism in the trading week.

Strong performance of banks and financial institutions that have a major stake in Nepse made a major contribution in driving up the benchmark index in review period.

The sub-index of banking surged by 15.65 points or 1.12 per cent to 1,412.59 points, and that of development banks went up 25.99 points or 1.35 per cent to 1,953.73 points. Share price of commercial banks like Nabil and Standard Chartered went up by 0.07 per cent to Rs 1,500 and by 0.61 per cent to Rs 2,309, respectively.

Similarly, hotels, went up by 31.13 points or 1.38 per cent to 2,273.53 points, while trading remained unchanged throughout the week at 212.76 points.

The insurance subgroup took the lead among the gainers during the review period, with the sub-index recording a strong growth of 199.65 points or 2.43 per cent to rest at 8,396.27 points. Stock price of Nepal Life surged by 6.11 per cent to Rs 2,170 and National Life rose by 3.05 per cent to Rs 2,329.

The index of hydropower came down to 1,939.95 points with a fall of 6.93 points or 0.35 per cent.

Following this, finance also dipped by 3.99 points or 0.53 per cent to 742.92 points.

The benchmark index had opened at 1,563.81 points on Sunday and had dropped by nearly 22 points by the day’s closing. The market continued to bob throughout the week, inching up 2.47 points on Monday, shedding 3.01 points on Tuesday before adding 9.78 points on Wednesday. The share market rebounded strongly on Thursday, gaining 31.05 points to close at 1,582.11 points for the week.

The sensitive index went up by 4.44 points or 1.34 per cent to 336.1 points and float index also gained 1.51 points or 1.32 per cent to 116.12 points.

Altogether, 7.02 million shares of 162 companies worth Rs 2.64 billion were traded through 27,032 transactions during the review period. The traded amount was a whopping 42.1 per cent higher than the previous week when altogether 3.41 million shares of 160 companies worth Rs 1.85 billion had changed hands through 16,006 transactions. It has to be noted, however, that the share market had remained open for only three days in the previous week against normal five days during the review period.

Meanwhile, Nepal Life Insurance topped the chart in terms of turnover with Rs 211.52 million, followed by Sanima Bank with Rs 126.56 million, Standard Chartered Bank with Rs 123.40 million, Nepal Credit and Commerce Bank with Rs 78.72 million and Nerude Laghubitta Bikas Bank with Rs 74.14 million.

While Nepal Life Insurance was also the forerunner in terms of number of number of transactions, with 3,769 transactions recorded under its name, NIBL Samriddhi Fund-I secured the top spot with regards to trading volume with 1.12 million of its scrips changing hands.