Nepse closes midway as index rises 5pc

KATHMANDU, APR 16 -

The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) had to halt share trading before the scheduled time  of normal market closure on Sunday as the Nepse index surged by 5 percent.

Earlier on the day, Nepse had imposed a temporary circuit breaker when the index rose by 3 percent.

The circuit breaker system is applicable at three stages of the index movement either way at 3 percent, 4 percent and 5 percent.

In case of a 3 percent movement of the index within first hour of trading, there will be a 15-minute market halt. If the benchmark index fluctuates 4 percent within 2 pm, there will be a trading halt for half an hour.

And, in case of 5 percent movement, regardless of the time, share transactions are halted for rest of the day.

The capital market has maintained an upward trajectory since the Nepal Army took control of Maoist People Liberation Army’s cantonments on April 10. On Sunday, the market surged by 17.41 point (5.44 percent) to reach 337.35 points. Nepse had also posted a double-digit growth last Thursday.

The double-figure growth in the indices of banking, hydropower and other groups pushed the Nepse index up on Sunday. The hydropower segment gained 35.25 points, while the banking group rose by 23.16 points. Other groups were up 18.79 points. Also, share prices of other financial organisations, including development banks, finance companies and insurance companies, rose.

Although the market closed before the scheduled time, transaction volume surged to Rs 58.1 million, which is more than double compared to the average transaction over the last few days. Companies having bigger market capitalisation witnessed more transactions on Sunday.

Source: Kantipur