Nepse closes week 0.09 points down

KATHMANDU, FEB 05 -

The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) last week lost a nominal 0.09 points to settle at 316.44 points on Thursday.

Over the last week’s four transaction days, the market index witnessed slight downfall on the second, a slight growth on the third and a nominal fall on the fourth trading day.

Groups representing commercial banks, hydropower companies, insurance companies, finance companies and development banks shed 0.60, 3.95, 0.43, 1.51 and 1.10 points, respectively. Hotel and others gained 22.49 and 2.35 points, respectively, while manufacturing and trading companies saw no change in their indices.

Although the market is not vibrant, it is pretty stable and will take off from here if certain issues are addressed, according to stock analysts. They say inadequate infrastructure, high cost of fund and limited number of investors are the major reasons behind the slackness in the exchange.

“The aforementioned issues must be addressed to revive the stock market,” said Anjan Raj Poudyal, president of Stock Brokers’ Association of Nepal. “However, with excess liquidity in the financial system and shrinking less investment areas, interest rates are likely to come down soon,” he said, adding that this could be a cheaper source of fund for the capital market.

Last week, Nepse’s market capitalisation fell marginally to Rs 294.21 billion from the previous week’s Rs 294.44 billion. The turnover, however, was a little encouraging as it increased to Rs 105.29 million, up 14.62 percent compared to Rs 91.86 million in the previous week.

Laxmi Bank accounted for a significant portion of the turnover, as the bank realised a whooping Rs 33.69 million from the trading of 146,516 shares. This took the bank to the top in terms of both the number of shares traded and highest turnover last week.

Professional Bikas Bank posted the highest number of transactions, with the bank’s shares changing hands 416 times.

Source: Kantipur