Nepse back to winning ways

KATHMANDU, Aug 15:

Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index snapped two-week losing spree this week, gaining 12.53 points to settle at 1,034.39 points on Thursday -- the last trading day of the week.

“Market corrections are regular phenomenon in the secondary market,” Priya Raj Regmi, managing director of Crystal Kanchanjanga Securities - a brokerage firm - told Republica. “The benchmark index had gone up drastically for the past many weeks. Most of the investors, who want to make profit from the growth, sold their shares.”

Regmi said the market is still on a bullish trend. But he did not rule out minor corrections.

Badri Prasad Phuyal, proprietor of Kumari Securities Service, agreed with Regmi. “The market is on a bullish trend and it is poised to cross the all time high of 1,175 points,” he said, adding, “Having said that, there is always possibility of downfall. Such corrections make the market strong and mature as they ring alarm bells.”

Majority of the trading groups logged gains this week. Insurance group was the biggest gainer of the week as its sub-index jumped 126.57 points to close at 4,344.4 points. Close on the heels were the Manufacturing and Processing and the Hotels groups which saw their sub-indices rise by 30.51 and 19.14 points, respectively, to settle at 1,189.22 and 1,977.52 points. Banking, the heavyweight trading group, also gained 14.74 points to settle at 937.73. Similarly, ‘Others’ group inched up to 754.24, gaining 2.35 points.

Hydropower and Finance groups, however, ended on the red zone. Their sub-indices went down by 8.72 and 4.09 points, respectively, to settle at 2,842.9 and 530.95 points. The Development Bank sub-index also shed 3.71 points to end the week at 749.43 points. The Trading sub-index remained unchanged this week.

A total of 2.19 million units of shares of 163 companies worth Rs 1.15 billion were traded in the bourse this week through 8,469 transactions. Total weekly turnover was 52.57 percent less compared to last week. Brokers attributed the drop in the turnover to the suspension of large number of brokerage firms from trading by Nepse as well as two public holidays this week.

Source: Republica