Myriad problems see Nepse shed almost 3 points

KATHMANDU, JAN 13 -

It was a week of technical glitches, low turnover, less share transaction at Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse), with the benchmark index losing 2.85 points. The capital market was on decline over the week, closing on 528.93 points on Thursday.

The problem in a Nepse server also hit the business, with stock brokers struggling to cater to the investors demand. The turnover at Nepse declined by 10.80 percent last week to a total turnover of Rs 394.73 million as against Rs 442.51 million the previous week.

Similarly, there was also drop in the number of shares traded, which fell by 33.48 percent. Nepse, last week  recorded transactions of 893,999 units of shares, down from the previous week’s 1.34 million.

A total of 106 companies’ shares were traded last week. Amongst the sub-indices, insurance, hotel, manufacturing, hydropower and finance companies posted gains.

Insurance and hotel sectors were the biggest gainers at Nepse, recording surge of 45.59 points and 40.34 points respectively. According to stock brokers, insurance stocks gained on Insurance Board’s latest directives, including investment diversification.

The decline in the share prices of major banks such as Nabil Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Nepal SBI Bank pushed the banking sub-indices down. Everest Bank Ltd posted the highest individual turnover of Rs 57.22 million among the banks, followed by Nepal Bank, Bank of Kathmandu and Nepal SBI Bank. Nepal Bangladesh Bank topped the chart in terms of the number of shares traded—77,627 units.

Life Insurance Company Nepal was the biggest gainer last week witnessing a growth of 20.67 percent, while Siddhartha Finance was the biggest loser going down 10.15 percent.

Source: The Kathmandu Post