Kathmandu, October 28:

After more than seven years, the index of the country’s sole secondary market, Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse), crossed 400-point mark this week, although the stock market opened only for a day. This is the second time in the history of stock market that the index has crossed 400-point mark.

The Nepse index posted a growth of 1.42 points this week due to price stability in the share prices of commercial banks.

The index had registered a rise of 0.43 point last week. It has been on a constant rise for last two months mainly due to rising share prices of leading scrips and addition of the new companies in the stock exchange.

All the days under the regular lot Nepse floor remained closed due to Tihar holidays and it opened only for a day on Thursday. The share trading began with 399.65 points and touched 401.07 points when the market closed the same day.

According to the Nepse, the weekly turnover stood at Rs 13.6 million with 24,892 unit shares having been traded through 118 transactions. A total of 210,575 unit shares worth over Rs 102.4 million were traded through 102.4 transactions. Out of the 41 listed companies for share trading, 21 companies saw their transactions.

The weekly trading report shows that out of the eight groups, three groups, including the leading scrip commercial banks registered growth, while development banks group lost and four groups remained constant. The commercial banks group registered a growth of 2.57 points. Its index opened at 449.48 points and closed at 450.47 points.

Likewise, the finance group gained 0.18 point as its index touched 274.54 points. The other group continued with a growth this week, too, as its index posted a rise of 1.87 points. The group’s trading closed at 431.14 points from the opening 429.27 points. The group had an impressive growth last week, too.

On the other hand, the development banks group was a sole loser, as its index dropped to 320.95 points from the opening 321.49 points last week. The Nepse indices of the manufacturing, hotel, trading and the insurance groups, meanwhile, remained unchanged throughout the week at 313.68 points, 179.03 points, 149.66 points and 394.58 points respectively. Among these groups, except trading group, all three groups had lost last week.

The commercial banks group dominated the Nepse floor, as it continued to capture the lion’s share of the total transaction. The group’s share accounted for 82.88 per cent. The finance group followed it and stood second with 6.64 per cent, while the other group captured 5.84 per cent share in the total trading. The insurance group cornered 4.20 per cent and the development banks group had a 0.43 per cent share.

Nabil Bank Ltd topped in terms of turnover that stood at Rs 3,937,480. But Prudential Insurance Co Ltd outshone others in terms of maximum number of transactions with 30 transactions and Prudential Bittiya Sanstha Ltd stood first in terms largest number of shares traded for the week.

The floor opened only for a day under a regular lot, where the shares of Nabil Bank, Nepal Investment Bank, Standard Chartered Bank Nepal, Himalayan Bank, Nepal SBI Bank, Nepal Bangladesh Bank, Everest Bank, Bank of Kathmandu, NIC Bank, Kumari Bank, Lumbini Bank, Siddhartha Bank, Chilime Hydropower Company, Nepal Life Insurance Company, Life Insurance Company, Prudential Insurance, Kathmandu Finance, Kist Merchant Finance, Birgunj Finance, Prudential Bittiya Sanstha and Credit Development Bank were traded throughout the week.