Index rises as commercial banks dominate trading
KATHMANDU, Dec 30:
The benchmark index continued to rally as banks reclaimed their dominance over the stock market this week — December 23 to 27.
The Nepse index jumped up 23.04 points in the week’s trading. The listed commercial banks dominated the trading throughout the week. The top five companies in terms of turnover were all commercial banks this week. Since some time, investors had taken to shares of hydropower companies and Nepal Telecom pushing the banks to the corner.
The banking subgroup index surged by 37.73 points as the share price of major commercial banks appreciated. Nabil Bank gained Rs 156 and Standard Chartered Bank earned Rs 130. Similarly, Bank of Kathmandu, Nepal Investment Bank and Everest Bank recorded gains this week. Likewise, the share price of Nepal Bank Ltd, that was relisted two weeks back, jumped by Rs 195 this week.
Top five firms in terms of turnover were Bank of Kathmandu (Rs 80.42 million), Nepal Bank (Rs 64.35 million), Global IME Bank (Rs 52.99 million), Nabil Bank (Rs 37.52 million) and Machhapuchchhre Bank (Rs 34.09 million).
The market opened at 517.87 points on Sunday after rising through 500 points. It closed at 519.44 points by the closing. Since then the index kept moving up steadily and reached 540.91 points by the end of the week’s trading.
In four trading days, the market witnessed trading of 2.01 million unit shares worth Rs 735.5 million of 106 companies in 7383 transactions. Last week, trading worth Rs 758.5 million was undertaken.
Stock trading of class ‘A’ companies accounted for 58.48 per cent of total trading, amounting to Rs 430.1 million. The sensitive index that measures the performance of blue chip stocks increased by 3.17 points. Float index jumped up by 0.93 points to 36.79 points.
Hydropower companies gained 16.93 points. Insurance companies and hotels also gained 4.11 points and 2.83 points, respectively.
On the other hand, finance companies and development banks lost 10.89 points and 0.68 points, respectively. Manufacturing companies were the biggest loser that lost 17.5 points as Unilever’s price retreated.
This week, Bank of Kathmandu was the forerunner in terms of trading volume and transaction with trading of shares worth Rs 80.4 million in 559 transactions. In terms of number of shares traded, Kist Bank was forerunner with trading of 198,793 unit shares .
Source: THT
