Investor confidence pushes stock index up
KATHMANDU:
Investors went on a buying spree while the market kept heading north this week — December 1 to 5.
The index gained 63.49 points — up by 8.9 per cent — in a week. As the final verdict of the Constituent Assembly elections were released with the victory of liberal parties, investor confidence has reached a new high pushing up share prices. The market index went past 700 points for the first time in the last 51 months.
On Sunday afternoon, the market opened at 643.63 points which reached 651.67 points by the time the market closed. In the next two days too the share price rally continued and by Tuesday the index had crossed 677.5 points.
On Tuesday evening, the final result of the election was announced and by the time of the opening on Wednesday share prices skyrocketed — that brought two circuit breakers at Nepse into action — passing 700 points. On early trading on Thursday, the market had shown a similar surge but at the time of closing it rested at 707.12 points due to profit booking.
Thanks to the rally, the stock exchange’s turnover has crossed Rs two billion. This week, the stock exchange witnessed trading of 6.7 million units of shares worth Rs 2.4 billion of 138 companies in 14,821 transactions.
Transaction volume went up by 50 per cent in comparison to last week. Share trading of blue chip stocks belonging to class ‘A’ companies comprised of 39.32 per cent of total transaction, amounting to Rs 95.4 million.
The sensitive index that shows the performance of class ‘A’ stocks increased by 15.91 points. Likewise, the float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded also went up by 3.54 points to 47.71 points.
All the subgroups registered impressive gains this week. The insurance subgroup’s index surged by 148.4 points on the week’s trading becoming the biggest earner. Share prices of companies such as NLG Insurance and Nepal Life Insurance went up by Rs 216 and Rs 140, respectively, among others.
Likewise, the hydropower subgroup also increased by 95.02 points as Chilime Hydropower Company, Butwal Power Company and Arun Valley Hydropower gained Rs 42, Rs 119 and Rs 88 per unit, respectively.
The banking subgroup also increased by 68 points as major banks such as Nabil Bank, Everest Bank and NIC Asia Bank earned Rs 340, Rs 135 and Rs 73 per unit, respectively, among others.
Development banks and finance companies also gained 63.22 points and 17.37 points. Nepal Telecom gained Rs 47 per share that sent others subgroup up by 55.21 points. The hotels subgroup registered a gain of 89.43 points.
This week, NIC Asia Bank topped the charts in terms of transaction volume with trading of shares worth Rs 173 million. Nabil Balanced Fund I was the front runner in terms of shares traded with trading of 688,203 units. Mega Bank Nepal topped in terms of number of transactions with 927 transactions.
The top five companies this week in terms of transaction volume were NIC Asia Bank (Rs 173.09 million), Nepal Bank (Rs 132.36 million), Chilime Hydropower Company (Rs 109.99 million), Nepal Bangladesh Bank (Rs 106.16 million) and Nabil Bank (Rs 102.66 million).
Source: THT
