Investors 'cautious' as stock prices slump
KATHMANDU:
The slump in the stock prices pushed the investors back to ‘wait-and-watch’ mode as the benchmark index took another dip this week — January 26 to 29.
The benchmark index dropped by five points — 0.6 per cent — on the week’s trading, reaching 781.46 points by the end of the week. Stock investors seemed to have distanced themselves from the market, wary of the constant plunge in the share prices. The initial slump has dragged on for too long and investors have reverted to wait-and-watch mode, which has affected the transaction volume too.
This week’s turnover was 45 per cent lower than that of last week. The stock exchange’s floor witnessed trading of 3.16 million units of shares worth Rs 1.1 billion in 9,903 transactions. Last week, the stock market saw trading of 4.4 million unit shares worth Rs two billion in over 12,000 transactions.
The market opened at 786.45 points on Sunday afternoon, and by the time the market closed for the day, it had slipped to 783.68 points. The benchmark index receded further to 780.47 on Monday’s closing to rally up marginally to 782.37 points on Tuesday, before resting at 781.46 points by Wednesday’s closing.
Along with the Nepse index, the sensitive index that shows the performance of blue chip stocks declined by 1.46 points. Likewise, the float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded also went down by 0.28 points to 52.16 points.
This week, subgroups such as banking, manufacturing and hotels ended up registering losses in the week’s trading.
The biggest earner of the week was the insurance subgroup that recorded a gain of 20.25 points, as insurance companies such as Nepal Life and Asian Life gained Rs 100 and Rs 24 per unit, respectively. Finance companies and development banks also recorded gains of 13.43 points and 4.35 points, respectively.
Hydropower recorded a gain of 5.07 points. The share price of Arun Valley Hydropower and Sanima Mai Hydropower registered gains of Rs 31 and Rs 112, respectively.
Banking lost 11.73 points, with Nepal Investment Bank and Nepal SBI Bank losing Rs 42 and Rs 48 per unit, respectively, among others.
Hotel was the biggest loser of the week as the subgroup went down by 39 points, in which Soaltee Hotel’s share price declined by Rs 14, and Oriental Hotel lost Rs 12 per unit share. Manufacturing also went down by 5.54 points, even though Bottlers Nepal Terai’s share price earned Rs 35.
Source: THT
