Kathmandu, February 8

As the secondary market has been in the ‘markup phase’ since mid-December, the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index has been on a rising trend. And keeping with this trend, the index went up by 0.63 per cent or 8.30 points to 1,333.69 points in the review week between February 2 and 6. However, the market did face some corrections in between.

Stock analysts have said that though the market has been facing liquidity crisis in the recent days, it has been strengthening due to the positive investor sentiment.

Prakash Rajhaure, an independent stock market analyst, said the market is now bullish. However, he mentioned the market would have been on a stronger run if Nepse had a few bigger companies listed.

“The market is in the first phase of the bullish trend, so it will take another one-and-a-half months for the bull run to fully take off. The market will then triple from what it is at the moment,” he informed.

Along with the Nepse index, weekly turnover also surged by 12.97 per cent as compared to the previous week to Rs 7.39 billion. In the previous week, the market had witnessed transactions worth Rs 6.54 billion. The trading volume also rose to 21.11 million stocks changing hands this week from 16.29 million in the previous week.

The secondary market had opened on Sunday at 1,325.39 points and surged by 21.26 points by the end of the trading day. On Monday too it rose by 2.49 points.

However, the index dropped by 12.09 points on Tuesday. On Wednesday, though, it again went up by 5.31 points. But it dropped by 8.67 points on Thursday to close the week at 1,333.69 points.

In the review week, development banks, non-life insurance, trading, hydropower, others, finance, manufacturing and banking sub-indices were in the green zone.

The development banks subgroup ascended by 2.97 per cent or 49.75 points to 1,831.21 points due to the share price of Jyoti Bikas Bank rising by seven rupees to Rs 191. Similarly, non-life insurance sub-index went up by 2.16 per cent or 127.58 points to 6,029.04 points as share price of Neco Insurance Co jumped by Rs 51 to Rs 558.

Meanwhile, trading also expanded by 2.05 per cent or 16.13 points to 802.67 points due to the share price of Salt Trading Corporation going up by Rs 72 to Rs 2,472. Likewise, hydropower subgroup gained by 2.06 per cent or 20.09 points to 1,021.33 points with the share price of Chilime Hydropower increasing by Rs 14 to Rs 437.

The others subgroup also went up by 1.83 per cent or 12.41 points to 686.88 points and finance rose by 1.31 per cent or 8.70 points to 670.78 points. Moreover, manufacturing subgroup added 0.96 per cent or 23.71 points to 2,489.86 points and banking sub-index inched up by 0.42 per cent or 4.89 points to 1,153.82 points.

Meanwhile, hotels subgroup was the biggest loser of the week, dropping by 2.70 per cent or 55.22 points to 1,987.10 points due to the share price of Soaltee falling by six rupees to Rs 207.

Moreover, mutual funds subgroup decreased by 1.58 per cent or 0.16 point to 10.0 points. Likewise, microfinance sub-index went down by 0.90 per cent or 19.94 points to 2,187.63 points and life insurance subgroup fell by 0.77 per cent or 58.37 points to 7,500.16 points.

In the review week, Nepal Insurance Co was the leader in terms of weekly turnover with Rs 273.16 million. It was followed by Neco Insurance with Rs 236.71 million, Surya Life Insurance with Rs 220.02 million, Grameen Bikas Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha with Rs 209.06 million and Nepal Life Insurance Co with Rs 208.60 million.

In terms of weekly trading volume, Civil Bank was the forerunner, with 1,245,000 of its shares changing hands. It was followed by National Hydro with 819,000 shares, Prabhu Bank with 766,000 shares, Global IME Bank with 632,000 shares and Nepal Insurance Co with 623,000 shares.

Meanwhile, Global IME Bank topped in terms of number of transactions, with 2,175 transactions. It was followed by Surya Life Insurance with 2,047, Civil Bank with 1,946, Prabhu Bank with 1,808 and Grameen Bikas Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha with 1,778 transactions.