Kathmandu, October 21:

Stock market this week closed on a positive note due to price stability in the share prices of commercial banks.

The index of the country’s sole secondary market Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) posted a growth of 0.43 point, which had registered a rise of 1.42 points last week.

The share trading has been on a constant rise for last two months mainly due to rising share prices of the leading scrips.

This week’s trading closed at 399.65 points on Thursday, up from the the opening 399.22 points on Sunday. The market observed fluctuation throughout the week as the Nepse index dropped to 398.20 on the second day and posted slight improvement on the third day with index at 398.44 points and 398.14 points on the fourth day. But it closed at 399.65 points on the last day.

According to the Nepse, the weekly turnover stood at Rs 102.4 million with 210,575 unit shares having been traded through 2,425 transactions. A total of 138,543 unit shares worth over Rs 85.5 million were traded through 1,200 transactions. Out of the 71 listed companies for share trading, 64 companies saw transactions this week.

The weekly trading report shows that out of the eight groups, three groups including the leading scrip commercial banks registered growth, while four groups lost and the trading group remained constant.

The commercial banks group registered a growth of 0.99 points. Its index opened at 449.48 points and closed at 450.47 points. Likewise, the finance group gained 1.07 points as its index touched 274.54 points from 273.47 points.

The other group continued with an impressive growth this week, too. The group posted a rise of 3.74 points, as its index closed up at 431.14 points from the opening 427.40 points on Sunday. The group had an impressive growth last week, too.

On the other hand, the manufacturing, hotel, insurance and development banks groups became the losers this week. Among the losers, the manufacturing group’s index suffered a heavy loss of 6.08 points, as it slid to 313.68 points from the opening 319.76 points on Sunday.

The hotel and the insurance groups registered marginal losses, as their indices closed at 394.58 points and 179.03 points respectively.

The trading of the hotel group began at 179.42 points, while the insurance group started at 395.44 points on Sunday. The trading group’s index, meanwhile, remained unchanged throughout the week at 149.66 points.

The commercial banks group dominated the Nepse floor, as it continued to capture a lion’s share of the total transaction. The group’s share accounted for 74.32 per cent. The other group followed it and stood second with 10.39 per cent, while the development banks group captured 4.98 per cent. The insurance group cornered 4.52 per cent and the finance group had a 3.21 per cent share out of the total transaction. The manufacturing group had a 2.53 per cent, while the hotel group had a mere 0.04 per cent.

Nepal Investment Bank topped all companies in turn-over and the number of shares traded during the week. A total of 17,229 unit shares of the ba-nk exchanged hands at Rs 24,972,460 this week at the flo-or. But Prudential Insurance Company outshone others as it has the largest number of tr-ansaction, which stood at 697.

The floor opened for five days under a regular lot, where the shares of Nabil Bank, Nepal Investment Bank, Standard Chartered Bank Nepal, Himalayan Bank, Nepal SBI Bank, Everest Bank, Bank of Kathmandu, NIC Bank, Machhapuchhre Bank, Kumari Bank, Lumbini Bank, Siddhartha Bank. Credit Development Bank and Chilime Hydropower Company were traded throughout the week.