Kathmandu, February 25:

Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index showed an impressive increment of 7.65 points this week. The weekly share trading at the country’s sole secondary market started at 325.35 points on Sunday and went up to 333.03 points on the last day of trading under the regular lot.

Leading groups including commercial banks, development banks, and manufacturing groups maintained growth and the trade group remained constant while the finance group index declined during the week.

According to the Nepse, a total of 99,312 units of shares valued at Rs 498,499,53 were traded through 991 transactions this week. Last week, a total of 305,740 units of shares changed hands generating a turnover of Rs 985,538,60 from 1,723 transactions. Of the 73 listed companies for share trading, only 62 companies saw transactions this week.

The weekly trading report of Nepse showed that the commercial banks group, which is the largest scrip by volume, captured 82.88 per cent of total shares transacted. The index of the group, that opened at 358.93 points on Sunday, went up to 368.53 points on the closing day. The group showed an increment of 9.6 points.

The manufacturing group’s index moved up from 278.20 to 283.32, insurance group reached 342.05 from 337.19, the hotel group climbed up from 182.60 to 183.55, development banks from 267.35 to 278.38. The finance group declined from 249.07 to 248.93.

The weekly trading report shows that indices of the trading groups remained constant at 148.07.

Of the total transactions that took place over the week at the Nepse floor, the commercial banks group continued to capture the lion’s share of 82.88 per cent. The share of finance group comprised 6.39 per cent of total transactions, while the development banks group followed it at 6.35 per cent. Likewise, the manufacturing group consisted of 2.41 per cent, hotels 0.32 per cent, the other group 0.01 per cent and trading group 0.12 per cent of the total transaction.

Total purchase of shares at the floor remained at 101 during the week, averaging 25 units per day. While total sales stood at 55, meaning that only 14 shares were sold on an average per day throughout the week.

In terms of the maximum number of transactions and the number of shares traded, Lumbini Bank Ltd topped the list during the week with 13,060 shares traded through 106 transactions.

In terms of share value, Standard Chartered Bank Ltd stood on the top of the list with transacted shares amounting to a total of Rs 13,078,710.

The floor remained open for four days under the regular lot and one day for the odd lot, where shares of Nabil Bank, Nepal Investment Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Nepal Bangladesh Bank, Everest Bank, Bank of Kathmandu, NIC Bank, Machhaphuchre Bank, Lumbini Bank and NCC Bank, Nepal Life Insurance Company, Life Insurance Company, Lalitpur Finance Nepal Merchant Banking and Finance, International Leasing and Finance, Central Finance, Credit Development Bank, Premiere Finance shares were transacted for all five days.