Kathmandu, September 22:

Defying all basic market fundamentals, the Bull Run continued at Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) this week, as the share trading posted yet another historic record by closing at an all time high of 879.96 points from the opening 818.16 points.

As the rush of gullible investors continued at the country’s sole secondary market, the Nepse index this week posted a hefty growth of 61.80 points, a largest ever in intra-week trading at the Nepse floor.

Despite repeated warnings from the market regulator Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON), Nepse and even by the central bank, the market continued to grow defying all basics. But the market analysts say that ‘the growth’ is unjustifiable.

“In such political instability and uncertainty, how can market grow, if there is no inside trading and manipulation,” says one investor adding that short-term gain — that can be fatal — has lured the investors. “Given the size of our economy and almost ‘no manufacturing sectors involvement’ in the Nepse mean this growth is ‘exaggerated’ and will not sustain.”

The Nepse index faltered on the second day and dropped to 817.08 points, but immediately bounced back to 827.74 points on the third day. It further grew to 837.92 points on the fourth day before closing at 879.96 points on the fifth day.

The weekly turnover, however, decreased this week to Rs 488.9 million with 757,457 unit shares having been traded through 1,636 transactions, against the last week’s figure of Rs 595.5 million through the trading of 700,153 shares. Out of the total trading, the companies under ‘A’ category comprised of 75.47 per cent or Rs 369 million.

The share prices of the financial institutions including commercial and development banks and insurance companies were the champions as usual, while the companies under hydropower group lost this week.

The commercial banks group, which is the largest scrip by volume at the Nepse floor, posted a significant growth of 95.89 points this week. The group’s index climbed up to 1012.03 points from the opening 916.14 points.

The development banks group posted 9.08 points growth and closed at 692.13 points. The group, which had gained last week too, opened at 683.05 points. The finance and insurance groups, too, managed growth as their index closed at 535.59 points and 679.58 points respectively. Earlier, the finance group began its trading at 527.30 points, while the insurance group started at 655.05 points.

The hydropower group, which has been one of the aggressive performers, lost this week as its index dropped by 7.01 points to close at 1413.83 points. The group began its trading at 1420.84 points.

The hotel, trading and other groups, meanwhile, remained constant at 280.95 points, 162.03 points and 818.12 points respectively, as the companies under these groups didn’t have a single trading throughout the week.

Nabil Bank Ltd outshone all others in terms of monetary value for the week, as the bank’s shares worth Rs 61.67 million exchanged hands at the floor, while NCM Mutual Fund stood first in terms of the largest number of shares 2,15,000 traded for the week. Nepal Bangladesh Bank saw the highest number of transactions this week.

Among the top 10 performers for the week, seven were commercial banks, two hydropower companies and one development bank.

The floor remained open for five days, where the shares of 19 companies saw their transaction throughout the week, four companies had trading for four days, five companies for three days, seven companies for two days and 12 companies for a day only.