Nepse index reaches 26-month high
KATHMANDU, Oct 21: The pre-Dashain week ended on a cheerful note at the stock market, as the Nepse index reached a 26-month high in the week’s trading –– October 14 to 18.
The Nepse’s benchmark index surged by 12.27 points in the week, as it rested at 436.71 points at the end of the week. Pre-Dashain trading usually leads to the index climbing, as many of the investors are flush with cash during the season and they try to invest the surplus in stocks.
Trading was dominated by larger companies –– Everest Bank, Nepal Telecom, Bank of Kathmandu, and Chilime Hydropower, among others.
Despite the index increasing, the stock exchange saw transaction volume decline by 61.76 per cent in the four trading days of the week.
The week saw 613,956 unit shares of 121 companies worth Rs 165.5 million being traded in 4286 transactions. Last week, 2.6 million unit shares worth Rs 463.5 million were traded.
Stock trading of class ‘A’ companies accounted for 57.75 per cent of total trading, amounting to Rs 95.7 million.
The sensitive index, which measures the performance of blue chip stocks traded, was able to gain 3.36 points. The indicator of the performance of actual shares traded –– float index –– earned 0.73 points to reach 31.06 points.
The market, that opened at 424.44 points on Sunday afternoon, reached 426.63 points by the end of the day. The following day, the index crept to 427.30 points. When the market opened after a day’s gap on Wednesday, the market surged to 433.16 points, and by the end of the trading week it rested at 436.71 points.
Nepal Telecom’s share price went up by Rs 25 per unit, pushing the others subgroup up by 29.37 points. Likewise, gains of Chilime Hydropower, Arun Valley Hydropower, and Butwal Power Company also pushed the hydropower subgroup up by 29.91 points.
Gains made by commercial banks also pushed the banking subgroup up by 12.21 points. Hotels, insurance companies and development banks gained 0.38 points, 7.87 points and 2.3 points, respectively, while finance companies remained motionless.
This week, Everest Bank was the forerunner in terms of trading volume and number of transactions with trading of shares worth Rs 37.8 million in 257 transactions. In terms of number of shares traded, Nepal Bangladesh Bank was the forerunner with trading of 48,360 unit shares.
The top five performers of the week were Everest Bank (Rs 37.86 million), Siddhartha Bank (Rs 13.45), Nepal Telecom (Rs 11.90 million), Bank of Kathmandu (Rs 8.29 million) and Nepal Bangladesh Bank (Rs 8.05 million).
This week, four million units of ordinary shares belonging to Rising Development Bank and Manjushree Financial Institution, were listed at the Nepal Stock Exchange.
Source: THT
