KATHMANDU, APRIL 13

The country's sole secondary market bid farewell to the Nepali year 2077 BS by sailing past 2,700 points to close at a fresh all-time high today.

"Investors are attracted to stocks of commercial and development banks," said Chhotelal Rauniyar, chairperson of Nepal Investors Forum, explaining the market rally.

Breaching the earlier record set just yesterday, when it had closed at 2,691.55 points, the Nepal Stock Exchange index advanced by 0.86 per cent or 23.23 points and settled at 2,714.79 points on the last trading day of 2077 BS.

Altogether 14.69 million shares of 209 companies changed hands through 76,094 transactions that amounted to Rs 7.14 billion. Of the companies whose shares were traded today, 106 gained, 14 were stable, and 89 landed in the red.

The sensitive index, which measures the performance of class 'A' stocks, rose by 1.25 per cent or 5.99 points to close at 486.28 points today. The float index that gauges the performance of shares actually traded went up by 1.16 per cent or 2.15 points to 187.88 points.

Altogether six subgroups recorded gains today. Development banks led the pack of gainers, surging by 3.41 per cent or 95.42 points to 2,890.32 points.

They were followed by banking with a rise of 2.3 per cent or 42.36 points to 1,881.12 points. Trading jumped 1.79 per cent or 69.29 points to 3,939.92 points; hydropower added 1.23 per cent or 31.69 points to 2,603.40 points; mutual funds edged up 0.43 per cent or 0.06 point to 13.47 points; and finance inched up 0.28 per cent to 3.64 points to 1,281.84 points.

Meanwhile, seven subgroups landed in the red, with hotels and tourism dropping the most - 1.61 per cent or 65.24 points to 3,988.04 points.

Non-life insurance dropped by 0.65 per cent or 88.92 points to 13,659.87 points; investment sub-index fell by 0.45 per cent or 0.46 point to 101.18 points; manufacturing and production slipped by 0.38 per cent or 21.51 points to 5,641.99 points; others was down 0.36 per cent or 7.5 points to 2,048.93 points; life insurance was down 0.29 per cent or 51.28 points to 17,362.43 points; and microfinance shed 0.27 per cent or 14.4 points to rest at 5,360.29 points.

Nabil Bank had the highest daily turnover today of Rs 286.26 million. NIC Asia Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha was the highest gainer, with its share value rising by 9.97 per cent to Rs 1,699, whereas Global IME Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha was the top loser with its share price down 4.27 per cent to Rs 2,508.

"As the bank interest rates are unlikely to rise over the next few months and as the threat of second wave of coronavirus is growing, investors will likely continue to flock to the share market, thereby causing the benchmark index to scale to newer heights in the coming days," said Rauniyar.

A version of this article appears in the print on April 14, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.