Nepse ends week with 0.13pc gain

KATHMANDU, MAR 11 -

The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) last week rose 0.13 percent to close at 315.87 points on Tuesday, the last trading day. The market had opened at 315.74 points on Sunday.

Measures taken by the government and the regulator to boost the market have so far failed to make a significant impact, with the Nepse still hovering around its lowest ebb. However, analysts are hopeful that the entry of Citizen Investment Trust would be a big boost.

Last week, groups representing commercial banks, hotels, hydropower companies, insurance companies and finance companies registered nominal growth of 0.09, 3.28, 0.66, 0.46 and 0.34 points, respectively. Development banks lost 0.33 points, while manufacturing, others and trading companies saw no change in their indices. Anjan Raj Poudyal, president of the Stock Brokers’ Association

of Nepal said that the market was pretty stable and the average daily transaction volume was satisfactory. “Citizen Investment Trust (CIT)’s decision to act as the market maker has infused new hope in investors,” said Poudyal. “Its entry will be a strong boost.”

According to Poudyal, investors are expecting an interest rate cut. “There is enough liquidity in the formal financial system and interest rates on deposits have already come down,” he said. “If banks and financial institutions slash the rates on lending too, the excess liquidity will flow into capital market.”

Nepse’s market capitalisation settled at Rs 296.46 billion last week. As trading was possible only for three days, the market turnover decreased 29.23 percent to Rs 81.12 million.  The figure was at Rs 114.62 million in the previous week. Bank of Asia Nepal realised a turnover of Rs 21.43 million from the trading of 139,003 shares, topping the charts in terms of both the market turnover and the number shares traded. Gurans Life Insurance Company posted the highest number of transactions of 311.

Source: Kantipur