KATHMANDU: Nepse this week plunged by 22.94 points to close at 578.19 points from Sunday morning’s opening of 601.13 points. Psycological pressure of book closures, fresh supply of stocks, financial institutions merging call — due to continuous decrease in price of shares — made investors more nervous forcing them to exit from the market.

In comparision to the new listing, the number of investors did not increase giving some smart investors a chance to sell off their shares at the current price and buy at a much lower price afterwards as according to them, the secondary market index is expected to drop further.

This week itself, primary shares of Sunrise Bank (12.5-million-units), Prime Comercial Bank (10-million-units), Vibor Bikas Bank (6.8-million-units) and rights shares of Civil Merchant Bittiya Sanstha (4,99,270-units), People’s Finance (666962-units), Pokhara Finance (12,720-units), Narayani Development Bank (99884-units) and Nirdhan Utthan Bank (20,9936-units) were listed at Nepal Stock Exchange, making the total number of listed shares over 928.72-million-units, including promoters’ shares, corporate debentures, bonds, preferred shares and mutual funds.

Of the total 26 commercial banks, Nepse has 23 commercial banks (with over 281.56-million-unit shares) under its banks sub-group that is the key player in the domestic market. Of the remaining three commercial banks, Nepal Bank Ltd has

been delisted, Agricuture Development Bank is floating its shares worth Rs 960 million soon and Rastriya Banijya Bank is a complete government undertaking.

Thirty 30 development banks are listed at Nepse

in the development

banks sub-group with a total of over 66.34-million-unit shares. Sixty-two finance companies are listed at Nepse with 81,932,204-unit shares.

Though there are 18 companies in the manufacturing sub-group, the sub-group is the least traded and the weakest player in the domestic secondary market unlike the global secondary market practice.

Market pandits think that the institutional investor is the need of the hour as the existing investors are unable to hold the fresh supply of shares. Apart from the nervousness of current investors, the continuous bearish trend has repelled new investors from the secondary market as the major market player — commercial banks sub-group — this week also lost a whopping 34.69 points to close at 552.19 points from Sunday morning’s opening of 586.88 points.

Bank of Kathmandu topped the chart in terms of transaction this week with Rs 31.19 million followed by Kist Bank with Rs 27.59 million, Nepal SBI Bank with Rs 26.20 million, Standard Chartered Bank Nepal with Rs 20.57 million and Nabil Bank with Rs 14.70 million.

In terms of number of share units traded this week, Kist Bank dominated the secondary market with its 76,000-unit of shares changing hands. Pashupati Development Bank topped the chart in terms of transaction number with 566 tradings in its kitty.

During the five-day session, 95 companies saw their shares being traded. The contribution of Group-A companies increased to 64.48 per cent against last week’s 56.48 per cent while the 78-scrip sensitive index — a barometer of Group-A companies — also lost 7.20 points to drop to 144.57.