Nepal Telecom breathes life into Nepse
KATHMANDU, SEP 2:
The rising share price of Nepal Telecom (NT) has brought the sensation back to the stock market which was lifelessly dragging on in the last couple of weeks.
This week –– August 26 to 30 –– the Nepse index registered a gain of 8.28 points mostly due to NT, though most of the subgroups have registered gains. NT, which has the highest weightage among the listed companies, comprising of almost 25 per cent of total market capitalisation, gained Rs 41 per unit share by the week’s closing.
The gain in NT shares made others subgroup the biggest gainer of the week –– up by 48 points. The company earned a profit of Rs 13 billion last fiscal year providing hopes to investors regarding handsome dividends.
This week, Nepal Telecom saw the trading of 72,055 unit shares worth Rs 42.2 million. However, Bank of Kathmandu became the company with highest transaction volume as 256,000 unit shares worth Rs 84.5 million were traded in the week.
Likewise, the Insurance Board cracking down on the misconducts of insurance companies in succession –– with Everest Insurance being the latest one to be chastised –– seems to have renewed investor confidence in insurance companies instead of deterring them and the insurance subgroup gained 27.29 points in the week.
Hydropower companies that have become prominent in the last few months also gained 15.22 points. Share prices of Arun Valley, Butwal Power and Chilime Hydropower earned Rs 14, Rs 13 and Rs 20 respectively. Manufacturing and hotels also registered gains of 10.59 points and 14.82 points, respectively.
The commercial banks subgroup gained a meagre 0.85 points, while finance companies and development banks lost 2.21 points and 2.01 points, respectively. Trading was the biggest loser of the week that went down by 24.91 points as Bishal Bazaar lost Rs 295 per unit share.
The market that opened at 397.53 points on Sunday afternoon closed at 397.17 points by the end of the day. The index climbed to 405.78 points on Monday and in the next two days inched up reaching 407.07 points on Wednesday. But by the end of the week, the index slipped to 405.82 points.
The stock exchange witnessed trading worth Rs 365.6 million of more than 1.2 million unit shares belonging to 122 companies in 7274 transactions. The transaction volume increased by 80.5 per cent in comparison to last week, as investors seem to have gained confidence in the stock market.
The sensitive index that measures the performance of blue chip stocks also gained 3.79 points as trading of shares of class ‘A’ companies comprised of 46.05 per cent amounting to Rs 168.2 million. Likewise, the indicator of the performance of actual shares traded –– float index –– also increased by 0.12 points to 30.51 points.
Source: THT
