Kathmandu, February 11
The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index salvaged the plunge of 88.67 points or 4.06 per cent of the previous week by surging 88.09 points or 4.21 per cent in the trading week between February 5 and 9.
Although the half yearly review of the Monetary Policy 2022-23 did not address the demands set forth by investors, the market remains positive following some recent provisions by the government in terms of the interest rate and liquidity situation of the country, stakeholders say.
According to Chhote Lal Rauniyar, the immediate past president of Nepal Investors Forum (NIF), the investors had requested officials of the Ministry of Finance and the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) to remove the cap of Rs 120 million on margin loans, address the liquidity demand as investors are unable to utilise the extra funds in the bank following the central bank's decision to replace credit to core-capital plus deposit (CCD) ratio to credit-deposit (CD) ratio, reduce risk weighted average to 100 per cent and interest rates.
"Although the demands were not fulfilled, the NRB has taken steps to provide some relief to borrowers, which can be seen as a positive step. I believe the authorities will also prioritise the development of the secondary market going forward and introduce effective provisions regarding the market in coming days," he told The Himalayan Times.
"The market index has also increased from around 1,800-point threshold to around 2,100 points following the formation of a new government, reappointment of Bishnu Paudel to the post of finance minister, reduction in inflation and improvement in remittance inflow and the country's financial situation and I believe the market will continue to follow a positive trend," he opined.
The sensitive index, which measures performance of class 'A' stocks, increased by 4.28 per cent to 415.42 points in the review period.
Meanwhile, the float index that gauges performances of shares actually traded edged up by 4.24 per cent or 6.25 points to settle at 153.53 in the review week.
Altogether 34.61 million shares were traded during the review week through 220,012 transactions that amounted to over Rs 12.52 billion. The weekly turnover fell by over 2.74 per cent compared to the previous week when 35.58 million shares had changed hands through 239,498 transactions that totalled over Rs 13 billion.
The average daily turnover in the past week was Rs 2.60 billion and it dropped to Rs 2.50 billion this week.
The benchmark index had opened at 2,094.54 points on Sunday before gaining 1.54 points by the time of closing to settle at 2,096.08 points. The market added 4.62 points on Monday to close at 2,100.70 points before jumping by 76.64 points on Tuesday to 2,177.34 points. The benchmark index shed 7.16 points to close at 2,170.18 points the following day before gaining 12.45 points on Thursday to settle at 2,182.63 points for the trading week.
All the subgroups landed in the green this week.
Investment led the pack of gainers after increasing by 7.97 per cent to 69.47 points; finance gained 7.17 per cent to 1,845.94 points; development banks rose by 6.29 per cent to 3,893.10 points; hydropower by 5.78 per cent to 2,738.67 points; manufacturing and processing surged by 5.33 per cent to 5,399.72 points; non-life insurance by 4.17 per cent to 9,443.93 points, others by 3.77 per cent to 1,550.36 points; trading by 3.68 per cent to 2,317.77 points, and life insurance by 3.33 per cent to 11,016.43 points.
Banking, the subgroup with the highest weightage, landed at 1,405.96 points, up by 3.14 per cent. Microfinance surged by 2.99 per cent to 4,720.83 points; hotels and tourism rose 2.88 per cent to settle at 3,321.13 points; while mutual funds went up by 1.25 per cent to 14.62 points.
A version of this article appears in the print on February 12, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
