Hydro, banks pull benchmark index down
KATHMANDU, JAN 19:
The plunge in share prices of hydropower companies and banks have pushed the stock market index further south this week — January 13 to 17.
The plunge in the two most important indices made the benchmark index go down by 7.96 points.
Chilime Hydropower lost Rs 32 per unit. Likewise‚ Arun Valley Hydropower and Butwal Power Company also lost Rs two and Rs five‚ respectively. The loss in their share prices pulled the hydropower index down by 21.53 points. Likewise‚ share prices of Standard Chartered Bank‚ Nepal Bank‚ Nabil‚ NIBL‚ and Bank of Kathmandu went down by Rs 44‚ Rs 124‚ Rs 30‚ Rs 33 and Rs 22 per unit share. The banking index slipped by 11.24 points as a result.
The market opened at 528.79 points on Sunday and reached 529.69 points by the time of closing. The index further climbed to 530.10 points on Tuesday. However‚ index could not sustain the ascent and in the following two days‚ it plunged and by the time of closing the index reached 520.77 points.
Trading volume also remained static this week as compared to previous week. In four trading days‚ the market witnessed trading of 1.2 million unit shares worth Rs 397.7 million of 101 companies in 4577 transactions. Last week‚ trading worth Rs 473 million was undertaken. This week’s turnover declined by one per cent.
Stock trading of class ‘A’ companies accounted for 60.73 per cent of total trading‚ amounting to Rs 267 million. The sensitive index that measures the performance of blue chip stocks declined by 2.07 points. The float index went down by 0.53 points to 35.41 points.
This week‚ hotels subgroup was the biggest earner‚ as Soaltee Hotel recovered from its previous loss‚ and it surged by 45.59 points. Likewise‚ insurance also gained 1.18 points. On the other hand‚ others‚ development banks and finance companies lost 5.58 points‚ 1.47 points and 6.68 points‚ respectively.
This week‚ Sanima Bank was the forerunner in terms of trading volume and number of shares traded with trading of 2.8 million unit shares worth Rs 54.1 million. Agriculture Development Bank topped in terms of number of transactions with 386 transactions.
