Kathmandu, December 31
The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index surged by 161.82 points or 8.67 per cent to resurface above 2,000 points in the trading week between December 26 and 29.
The reappointment of Bishnu Paudel to the post of country's finance minister was followed by a positive shift in the secondary market as the benchmark index had also taken a northward trend when he held office previously, stakeholders say.
The sensitive index, which measures performance of class 'A' stocks, increased by 6.61 per cent or 24.25 points to 391.31 points in the review period. The float index that gauges performances of shares actually traded also gained 8.52 per cent or 11.17 points to settle at 142.22 in the review week.
Altogether 32.23 million shares were traded during the review week through 187,224 transactions that amounted to Rs 10.99 billion. Although the market was open for just four days in the review week, the weekly turnover increased by over 121 per cent compared to the previous week when 15.05 million shares had changed hands through 124,037 transactions that totalled Rs 4.95 billion.
The average daily turnover in the past week was Rs 991 million and it increased to Rs 2.74 billion this week.
As the market had remained closed on Sunday due to Christmas, the benchmark index had opened at 1,867.21 points on Monday and increased by 56.88 points to close at 1,924.09 points for the day. The market added another 59.86 points on Tuesday to 1,983.95 points before losing 11.80 points on Wednesday to 1,972.15 points. On Thursday, the market more than recouped the loss of the earlier day by adding 56.88 points to breach the 2,000 threshold and settle at 2,029.03 points for the week.
All the subgroups landed in the green this week.
The finance subgroup increased by 17.39 per cent or 254.10 points to 1,714.94 points, hydropower by 16.27 per cent or 315.45 points to 2,254.66 points, investment by 12.86 per cent or 7.07 points to 62.05 points, nonlife insurance by 12.16 per cent or 899.37 points to 8,294.75 points, development banks by 10.30 per cent or 336.21 points to 3,599.58 points, manufacturing and processing by 6.33 per cent or 309.76 points to 5,206.19 points, and others by 2.55 per cent or 38.57 points to 1,553.46 points.
Life insurance surged by 11.23 per cent or 1,017.88 points to 10,080.54 points, and the trading subgroup increased by 7.81 per cent or 141.26 points to 1,949.54 points. Hotels and tourism gained 7.02 per cent or 188.33 points to 2,870.58 points, banking landed on 1,365.78 points, up by 6.96 per cent or 89.91 points. Microfinance rose by 5.70 per cent or 241.93 points to 4,486.67 points, and mutual funds by 4.10 per cent or 0.54 point to 13.72 points.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 1, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
