Kathmandu, March 30

The country’s sole secondary market witnessed an upward trend in the trading week between March 24 and 28 as the country’s investment environment turned positive due to the Nepal Investment Summit that was organised by the government.

Organising the second edition of the investment summit in Kathmandu, the government had said that it has created the necessary environment for

investment in Nepal.

As a result, the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index was in an upward trend in the review week, rising by 0.34 per cent or 3.96 points.

“The government has created a conducive environment to attract investors in various other sectors but the secondary market still needs the government’s assurance to perform as expected,” said Rajan Lamsal, general secretary of Nepal Investors Forum.

Meanwhile, he said that banks and financial institutions are yet to provide loans to share investors.

Similar to the Nepse index, the sensitive index also went up by 0.42 per cent or 1.02 points to 243.48 points and the float index also inched up by 0.35 per cent or 0.29 point to 83.34 points.

In the review period, weekly turnover increased by 23.89 per cent as compared to the previous week to Rs 1.42 billion. In the previous week the market witnessed turnover of Rs 1.15 billion. However, the daily average turnover descended by Rs 285.7 million, which is a fall of 0.89 per cent in comparison to the previous week when it stood at Rs 288.27 million.

The secondary market had opened at 1,140.6 points on Sunday and went down by 5.81 points by the end of the trading day. However, it reversed course and went up by 3.86 points on Monday. The market continued to rise, going up by 2.06 points on Tuesday and 1.81 points on Wednesday. Similarly, on Thursday too, the secondary bourse went up by 2.01 points to close the week at 1,144.53 points.

In the review week, manufacturing, finance, hotels and microfinance subgroups landed in the red zone. The manufacturing sub-index led the pack of losers going down by 1.09 per cent or 22.29 points to 2,014.65 points. Likewise, the finance subgroup descended by 0.39 per cent or 2.44 points to rest at 615.24 points.

Similarly, hotels sub-index fell by 0.32 per cent or 5.54 points to land at 1,722.52 points and the microfinance sub-index too descended by 0.12 per cent or 1.71 points to 1,384.62 points.

Meanwhile, the life insurance subgroup led the pack of gainers, ascending by 1.26 per cent or 73.95 points to 5,920.97 points. The banking sub-index also expanded by 0.42 per cent or 4.15 points to 989.28 points and others sub-index inched up by 0.40 per cent or 2.88 points to 706.72 points.

Moreover, the hydropower subgroup rose by 0.19 per cent or 2.24 points to 1,158.86 points and non-life insurance subgroup went up by 0.14 per cent or 7.61 points to 5,385.14 points.

Similarly, the development banks subgroup also increased by 0.11 per cent or 1.71 points to 1,451.68 points.

Meanwhile, the trading sub-index did not witness any transaction in the review week to remain at 244.89 points.

In the review week, Asha Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha was the leader in terms of weekly turnover with Rs 482.2 million. It was followed by Shivam

Cements with Rs 256.7 million, Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower with Rs 233.5 million, NMB Bank with Rs 60.2 million and Nepal Life Insurance with Rs 52.5 million.

Meanwhile, Laxmi Bank topped the chart in terms of number of transactions — 1,450. It was followed by Shivam Cements with 253, Upper Tamakoshi with 159, Century Commercial Bank with 136 and MuktinathBikas Bank with 133 transactions.

New Listings

Company

Type

Units

Bank of Kathmandu

Bonus

9,902,054

National Micro Bittiya Sanstha

Bonus

305,270.00

Siddhartha Bank

Bonus

4,232,193

Source: Nepse