Kathmandu, October 7

The country’s sole secondary market slipped slightly in the trading period after Dashain vacation. Closing at 1,542.65 points on Wednesday, last trading day of the week, Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index clocked a week-on-week loss of 6.81 points or 0.44 per cent.

The secondary market was open for just two days against the normal five-day trading period. Due to a public holiday for Dashain on Sunday and Monday and Kojagrat Purnima on Thursday, Nepse was open only on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The sensitive index closed at 323.87 points, down 1.42 points or 0.44 per cent and the float index closed at 111.65 points falling by 0.64 point or 0.57 per cent during the review period.

The benchmark index had opened at 1,549.46 points on Tuesday, and closed at 1,556.35 points by the end of the day, gaining 6.89 points. However, the secondary market slid to 1,542.65 points on Wednesday, declining by 13.70 points.

The ongoing political scenario during the week also affected the secondary market. “It seems that the investors are not very optimistic of the leftist alliance. The stock market dropped the very next day after the leftist alliance was declared,” said Narendra Sijapati, former chairman of the Stock Brokers’ Association of Nepal. He added that if the political instability continues, the market will drop more in the next few days.

The sub-index of class ‘A’ financial institutions slipped to 1,332.51 points, falling by 11.81 points or 0.88 per cent during the week. Share price of commercial banks like Nabil and Nepal SBI declined in the trading period. Share price of Nabil fell by 1.5 per cent to Rs 1,245 and that of Nepal SBI dropped by 1.64 per cent to Rs 840 in the review period.

Likewise, the sub-index of development banks slumped by 22.15 points or 1.15 per cent during the review period to 1,909 points.

Insurance sector fell by 0.31 per cent to 8,458.35 points in the week.

Finance subgroup shed 0.08 point or 0.01 per cent during the week to 793.91 points. Similarly, the sub-index of trading sector fell by 0.08 point to 233.87 points in the review period.

Meanwhile, hotels and hydropower sectors witnessed growth of more than two per cent during the review period. The sub-index of hotels went up to 2,394.70 points, gaining 56.80 points or 2.43 per cent during the week. Share price of Soaltee Hotel went up by 1.96 per cent to Rs 365 and that of Oriental Hotel increased by 4.32 per cent to Rs 893 during the trading week.

The hydropower sector rose by 2.02 per cent or 36.27 points in the week to 1,830.81 points. Share price of Chilime Hydropower Company ascended by 4.12 per cent to Rs 833.

Others sector went up by 7.8 points or 1.08 per cent to 732.29 points, while the manufacturing sector rose by 9.14 points or 0.35 per cent to 2,612.18 points during the review period.

A total of 929,819 units of shares worth Rs 419.80 million were traded through 4,564 transactions in the review period.