KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 19

The country’s sole secondary market recovered some of the previous week’s losses in the trading period between December 13 and 17, with the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index advancing by 3.49 per cent or 68.50 points week-on-week.

Even though initially it seemed Nepse would set a new record during the review period, profit-booking from mid-week capped the share market gains.

“The kind of slight corrections that we witnessed in the past week is actually good as it ensures the market does not become overheated,” explained a share market analyst, adding the secondary market continues to be bullish.

Opening at 1,964.02 points on Sunday, the benchmark index had jumped 46.43 points to cross the threshold of 2,000 points by the time of closing. Nepse index surged by 56.72 points on Monday to close just 3.86 points shy of the previous all-time high of 2,071.03 and seemed all set to set a fresh record.

However, the local bourse reversed course the next day and remained southbound for the rest of the week — down 5.75 on Tuesday, 6.20 points on Wednesday and 22.70 points on Thursday to close the trading week at 2,032.52 points.

While the number of transactions and weekly turnover rose in the review period, the trading volume fell compared to the previous week.

Altogether, 56.37 million shares were traded through 259,203 transactions that amounted to Rs 30.09 billion in the review week. In the preceding week, 60.68 million shares had changed hands through 256,599 transactions that totalled Rs 28.49 billion.

The sensitive index, which measures the performance of class ‘A’ stocks, rose by 3.19 per cent or 11.92 points to 385.95 points. The float index that gauges the performance of shares actually traded also went up by 3.72 per cent or 4.95 points to 137.92 points.

Among the subgroups, nine recorded gains, while three landed in the red.

Microfinance led the pack of gainers, soaring by a massive 11.19 per cent or 337.94 points to 3,357.19 points.

In terms of points gained, however, life insurance topped the chart with the sub-index surging by 1,178.23 points to 13,258.1 points, up 9.75 per cent.

Hydropower, the only subgroup to land in the green in the previous week with a jump of 2.44 per cent, saw the gains wiped out as the sub-index plunged by 6.79 per cent or 120.41 points to rest at 1,653.56 points.

Nepal Life Insurance Co (NLIC) was the forerunner in terms of weekly turnover with Rs 2.81 billion. It was followed by Nepal Reinsurance Co Ltd (NRIC) with Rs 2.23 billion, National Life Insurance Co Ltd (NLICL) with Rs 1.04 billion,

Nepal Bank Ltd (NBL) with Rs 973.41 million and Nabil Bank Ltd with Rs 965.66 million.

Nepal Credit and Commercial Bank (NCCB) topped the chart in terms of trading volume with 2.54 million of its shares traded. NBL with 2.41 million shares, Prabhu Bank Ltd with 1.46 million shares, NRIC with 1.42 million shares and NIC Asia Bank Ltd with 1.38 million shares rounded up the top five in this category.

NRIC recorded the most number of transactions — 15,086. With 13,314 transactions, Mountain Energy Nepal Ltd was second; NLIC was third with 11,899 transactions; Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Ltd was fourth with 6,636 and NCCB was fifth with 5,315 transactions.