Stock Exchange starts automated trading

Kathmandu, August 18:

Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) this week faltered as its index registered a loss of over

12 points.

Though the country’s sole secondary market last week had touched a historic high of 725.31 points, it headed for correction with the induction of the Computerised International Standard Securities Trading Software at Nepse on trial basis.

The loss may be due to automated trading system that the Nepse started on Thursday for the first time in its 14-year history. After the two-day trial, the new system will be operational from August 19.

Nepse that opened at 718.09 points on Sunday settled at 705.96 points on the closing day. The induction of computerised automated trading system could correct a rumour-driven trend at Nepse, the analysts predict.

The market registered a continuous loss on the first three days but maintained a marginal gain on the final day.

The share prices of the commercial banks, companies under hydropower and insurance groups suffered loss, while the companies under finance and development banks groups posted growth.

The weekly turnover also decreased significantly this week to Rs 278.1 million with 579,509 unit shares having been traded through 10,293 transactions, against the last week’s figure of Rs 463.3 million through the trading of 643,181 shares.

The commercial banks group, which is the largest scrip by volume at the Nepse floor, suffered a heavy loss, as its index dropped by 18.98 points. The group’s index went down to 782.55 points from the opening 801.53 points.

The hydropower group, one of the aggressive performers, this week lost over 16 points, as its index dipped to 1121.49 points from the opening 1137.63 points on Sunday. The group has been registering a double digit growth for the last couple of weeks.

Likewise, the insurance group’s index also dropped by 3.27 points to settle at 653.37 points from the opening 656.64 points. The group had posted a marginal gain last week.

On the other hand, finance, development banks and trading groups emerged as gainers this week. Among these, the finance group registered a growth of 7.45 points, while the development banks group posted a healthy growth of 17.14 points.

The finance group’s index closed at 513.92 points from the opening 506.47 points on Sunday. The development banks group that opened at 524.91 points went up to 542.05 points on Thursday.

The manufacturing, trading and other groups, meanwhile, remained constant at 347.54 points, 162.03 and 818.12 points respectively throughout the week, as the companies under these groups didn’t have a single trading this week.

Gurkha Development Bank Ltd outshone all others in terms of largest trading for the week, as a total of 168,490 unit shares of the bank were traded at Rs 71,292,940 through 5,317 transactions.

The floor remained open for four days, where the shares of Nabil Bank, Nepal Investment Bank, Nepal SBI Bank, Nepal Bangladesh Bank, Everest Bank Ltd, NIC Bank, Bank of Kathmandu, Machhapuchhre Bank, Kumari Bank, Lumbini Bank, Siddhartha Bank, Oriental Hotels, National Hydropower Company, Chilime Hydropower Company, Nepal Life Insurance, Shikhar Insurance, Ace Finance, Shree Investment Finance, and Development Credit Bank were traded throughout the week.

New listing:

KATHMANDU: Nepse this week listed 532,445 additional shares for the trading. Of the new listed shares, 200,000 are ordinary shares of Swabalamban Development Bank Ltd, 166,139 bonus shares of Rastriya Beema Sansthan, 40,000 bonus shares of Peoples Finance and 126,306 bonus shares of Universal Finance. — HNS