Kathmandu, February 4
The recent developments in the political front weighed on the investors' sentiment in the trading week between January 29 and February 2, causing the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index to fall by 88.67 points or 4.06 per cent, snapping the consecutive week-on-week gain since the last week of December.
On January 27, the Supreme Court had invalidated Rabi Lamichhane's election to the House of Representatives, citing that the former deputy prime minister and home minister did not get his Nepali citizenship restored when he contested the parliamentary elections held on November 20. Due to the ongoing uncertainty, investors are mostly in the 'waitand'watch' mode, as per share market analysts.
Consequently, the sensitive index, which measures performance of class 'A' stocks, slumped by 14.77 points or 3.58 per cent to 398.37 points in the review period. Meanwhile, the float index that gauges performances of shares actually traded also fell 6.23 per cent or 4.06 points to settle at 147.28 points in the review week.
Altogether 35.58 million shares were traded during the review week through 239,498 transactions that amounted to over Rs 13 billion. The weekly turnover decreased by over 1.41 per cent compared to the previous week when 36.35 million shares had changed hands through 219,940 transactions that totalled Rs 13.19 billion. It may be noted that the market was open for just four days in the previous week compared to normal five trading days in the review week. In this regard, the average daily turnover in the past week was Rs 3.29 billion and it decreased to Rs 2.60 billion this week.
The benchmark index had opened at 2,183.21 points on Sunday and had lost 14.68 points by the time of closing to settle at 2,168.53 points. Nepse index plunged by 41.16 points on Monday to close at 2,127.37 points before losing another 15.69 points on Tuesday to 2,111.68 points. On Wednesday, the benchmark index inched up 4.97 points to 2,116.65 points, but saw the gain washed away the very next day as the index fell by 22.11 points to retreat below the 2m100 threshold on Thursday to settle at 2,094.54 points for the trading week.
All the subgroups landed in the red this week.
Banking, the subgroup with highest weightage in the market capitalisation, landed at 1,363.13 points, down 2.71 per cent or 38.01 points. Investment led the pack of losers after falling to 64.34 points, down by 5.03 points or 7.25 per cent.
Similarly, finance fell by 128.63 points or 6.95 per cent to 1,722.50 points; hydropower lost 138.53 points or 6.95 per cent to 2,588.99 points; microfinance slumped by 239.02 points or 4.96 per cent to 4,583.72 points, development banks fell by 187.24 points or 4.86 per cent to 3,622.66 points; investment fell by 2.01 per cent or 1.42 points to 69.37 points.
Non-life insurance lost 422.66 points or 4.45 per cent to 9,065.74 points; others fell 68.77 points or 4.40 per cent; hotels and tourism dropped by 147.25 points or 4.36 per cent to 3,228.11 points; trading was down 101.71 points or 4.35 per cent to 2,235.57 points; life insurance fell 363.42 points or 3.30 per cent to 10,661.69 points; mutual funds decreased by 0.42 points or 2.83 per cent to 14.44 points; and manufacturing and processing lost 113.37 points or 2.16 points to 5,126.398 points.
A version of this article appears in the print on February 5, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
