Kathmandu, March

The engine of the bull market roared in the trading week of February 28 to March 3, with the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index clocking a weekly gain of 17.24 points or 1.34 per cent to overcome the barrier of 1,300 points.

Opening the week at 1,283.52 points, benchmark index inched up 0.15 point and 0.27 point by the time of closing on Sunday and Monday and gained 5.58 points on Tuesday. With the Cabinet naming new deputy governors on Wednesday, the local bourse advanced 6.26 points to 1,295.78 points — breaching the previous high of 1,291.81 points recorded on February 22. As investor optimism buoyed, Nepse jumped another 4.98 points to close the week at a fresh peak of 1,300.76 points.

Analysts, meanwhile, report of nagging unease that the bullishness is merely a monetary phenomenon and not based on improving corporate fundamentals. While the decline of some of highflyers may be necessary to give the market ‘a little bit of cleansing’, the latest sell-off may create a negative feedback loop, they warn.

All in all, 4.75 million shares of 143 companies amounting to Rs 2.80 billion were traded in the country’s sole secondary market through 13,464 transactions during the review period. The traded amount was 1.39 per cent less than the preceding week when 11,696 transactions of 8.01 million shares of 138 firms worth Rs 2.83 billion had been undertaken.

The sensitive index, which gauges the performance of class ‘A’ stocks, rose 1.16 per cent to 280.74 points. Similarly, the float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded also went up 1.57 per cent to 93.71 points.

Among the subgroups, others and trading held steady at 201.38 points and 828.24 points, respectively. Apart from hydropower and manufacturing, all the remaining subgroups landed in the green zone.

Finance subgroup retained the top spot among gainers, surging by a whopping 8.17 per cent to 691.03 points. Share value of Pokhara Finance went up by Rs 92 to Rs 382, Seti Finance by Rs 91 to Rs 371 and United Finance by Rs 26 to Rs 402, among others.

Development banks also saw an impressive gain of 5.57 per cent to 1,338.2 points. Some of the top performers in the subgroup included Deprosc (up Rs 466 to Rs 2,626), ILFCO Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha (up Rs 127 to Rs 1,165), Nirdhan Utthan (up Rs 165 to Rs 1,880), Sana Kisan (up Rs 158 to Rs 1,691) and Swabalamban (up Rs 155 to Rs 2250).

Insurance bounded back from the previous week’s dip of 0.85 per cent by ascending 1.34 per cent to 5,588.71 points. Stock price of Everest Insurance went up by Rs 160 to Rs 1,170 and Prabhu Insurance by Rs 122 to Rs 707.

Hotels too managed to recover some of the previous week’s loss of 2.84 per cent by climbing 1.27 per cent to 1,732.56 points. Even as Taragaon Regency retreated by three rupees to Rs 209, the loss was countered by Oriental which ascended by Rs 39 to Rs 454 and Soaltee edging up one rupee to Rs 323.

Compared to the previous week’s gain of 1.17 per cent, the gain witnessed by commercial banks was muted — up 0.27 per cent to 1,185.51 points.

Meanwhile, hydropower continued its losing streak by shedding 0.6 per cent to 2,232.68 points. Although Api rose by Rs 73 to Rs 568, Chilime’s share price taking a beating by Rs 38 to Rs 1,332 weighed on the sub-index.

Unilever Nepal’s share price fell by Rs 190 to Rs 28,500, which in turn dragged the manufacturing sub-index down 0.49 per cent to 1,998.78 points.

Nepal Investment Bank topped the chart in terms of turnover with Rs 192.8 million. It was followed by Rural Microfinance Development Centre with Rs 153.9 million, Nepal Grameen Bikas Bank with Rs 125.88 million, Shikhar Insurance Co with Rs 117.48 million and Nepal Investment Bank (Promoter Share) with Rs 96.09 million.

Meanwhile, Nabil Balanced Fund-I was the forerunner in terms of shares traded with 548,000 of its scrips changing hands. Shikhar Insurance Co recorded the most number of transactions —