Banks drag Nepse 4.62 points down
POST REPORT, MAR 18 -
Despite a high turnover, the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index closed week 4.62 points down. The index, which opened at 315.42 points on Sunday, settled at 310.79 points on Thursday.
The overall performance of Nepse index can directly be associated with the performance of the shares of commercial banks, the movers and shakers of the capital market. Last week, commercial banks led the losers’ side, dropping 6.71 points.
Groups representing others, hydropower companies and finance companies were down 4.70, 2.32 and 1.01 points, respectively. Hotels, insurance companies and development banks registered nominal growth of 0.19, 1.65 and 0.01 points, respectively, while manufacturing and trading companies were the non-movers.
Anjan Raj Poudyal, president of the Stock Brokers’ Association of Nepal, said the market was ‘pretty stagnant’, apart from a few movements caused by bulk trading of shares that traders sell to repay margin loans. “Citizen Investment Trust’s (CIT)’s decision to act as market maker had created a euphoria among investors last week,” said Poudyal. “However, the excitement didn’t last long.”
Poudyal added that investors were waiting for a cut in bank interest rates, but banks and financial institutions, which are facing problems due to margin lending, are unlikely to be too generous while lending to the area.
The market’s bearish run was reflected on its capitalisation, with the figure coming down to Rs 290.62 billion from previous week’s Rs 295.37 billion. However, the trading volume increased by a whopping 150.88 percent. The exchange realised a turnover of Rs 203.51 million last week compared to Rs 81.12 million in the previous week.
Trading of Everest Bank shares accounted for more than half of the total turnover. The bank posted a turnover of Rs 102.29 million from the trading of 156,889 shares, topping the charts in terms of both turnover and the number of shares traded.
Valley Finance Company posted the highest of number of transactions as its shares changed hands 374 times.
Source: Kantipur
