Stock market stable, Nepse index rebounds 6 points

Published On: February 4, 2018 06:59 AM NPT By: Republica | @RepublicaNepal

KATHMANDU, Feb 4:Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) benchmark index rebounded 5.57 points this week to close at 1,411.52 points on Thursday -- the last trading day of the week.

A total of 3.47 million units of shares of 172 companies worth Rs 1.37 billion were traded in the market this week through 16,769 transactions. The turnover was 21.28 percent lower than the last week.

The market remained open for only four trading days as Nepse remained closed on Tuesday to commemorate Martyrs Day.

Albeit slowly, the stock market is on a recovery path in recent weeks after taking a huge dive in last few months in the wake of rise of interest rates due to shortage of lendable fund in the banking system. As interest rates are in an upward trend, stocks had taken a slump. With fixed deposit interest rate rising up to 13 percent, investors find parking their fund in bank and financial institutions more profitable than making investment in stocks whose prices have been on a downward trend.

“The market has remained largely stable as investors are in a wait-and-watch mode in the current scenario when the rise in the interest rates has not stopped,” said a broker. “There are also some investors who have been buying stocks at the low price,” the broker added.

He also said that the recent political development, particularly the meeting of provincial assemblies, has also helped to boost the confidence of investors who were frustrated with the political uncertainty that had dominated the country for a long time as well as the landslide victory achieved by the 'left alliance' in recent elections. Almost all trading groups ended in the green zone except Hydropower group which fell 8.45 points to close at 1,832.27 points. Insurance group climbed up 46.73 points to end at 7,227.54 points. Hotels group also went up 20.03 points to close at 2,136.24 points. Microfinance group logged a gain of 16.87 points to finish at 1,698.54 points.

Sub-indices of Development Bank and Trading groups rose 12.78 points and 12.24 points, respectively, closing at 1,584.08 points and 215.62 points. Banking, the heavyweight group, logged a gain of 3.96 points and settled at 1,227.08 points. Finance and Manufacturing and processing groups ended 2.59 points and 1.95 points higher at 716.31 points and 2,483.73 points, respectively. 'Others' group also inched up 1.3 points to finish at 765.83 points.

Sanima Mai Hydropower Ltd topped the list of companies in terms of turnover (Rs 82.5 million) while Nepal Bank Ltd become the top company in terms of traded shares (211,000 units). Nepal Investment Bank Ltd remained at the top of list of companies in terms of number of transactions (674). Bonus shares of Kabeli Bikas Bank Ltd, Siddhartha Insurance Ltd, Global IME Bank Ltd and Laxmi Bank Ltd were listed in the Nepse this week for trading.