Dragged by festive mood, Nepse sheds 16.11 points this week

ShareSansar, October 10:

The benchmark index of Nepal Stock Exchange Limited (Nepse) shed 16.11 points or 1.72 percent in the first trading week after the Dashain holidays, to close at 921.88 levels.

This week, which had just two trading days on Wednesday and Thursday – remained sluggish for all the obvious reasons. Millions of people who had left the capital to their respective home districts are yet to return to Kathmandu where the real trading of stock take place. Likewise, this was also the first week of trading of demat shares – that too of commercial banks which comprise around 80 percent of the market cap -- through CDS, which the investors, especially the general ones, are not yet fully familiar with. The market may also have been slightly affected by the recent political standoff between major parties, though the parties are trying hard to forge consensus on the constitution drafting process.

Little wonder that the total market turnover this week remained just above Rs 20 crore.

Looking at group-wise trading on the first day, the Banking group shed modest 9.88 points, Development Banks shed 3.88 points and Finance companies lost just 0.37 points. Hotels, too, shed merely 7.89 points. The Hydropower  and Insurance groups were the major losers. Hydropower sub-index shed 114.64 points while the Insurance group lost 99.29 points. The remaining two sub-indices –Manufacturing and Others group did not witness any trading on the first day.

The total market turnover on the first day stood at just Rs 10.21 crore.

On the second day, too, the market shed another 3.33 points or 0.36 percent.

The Banking sub-index again registered a modest loss of 4.82 points to end at 816.41. The Hotels group shed 1.64 points, the Development Bank group lost 2.56 points, and the Others group lost 14.09 points.

Unlike the first day when all the sub-indices traded ended in the red terrain, the Hydropower, Finance and Insurance Groups closed in the green zone on the second and the final day of this week’s trading. It may also be noted that though Hydropower and Insurance scrips were the biggest losers yesterday, they fared the best today. Hydropower gained 36.13 points, Insurance gained 11.28 points while the Finance group posted a modest gain of just 1.35 points.

The total market turnover on the second day was similar to that of the first day, and stood at just above Rs 10 crore.

It may be noted that the Nepse index had been surging impressively just before the Dashain festival to close at  937.99 level for the Dashain holidays.