Nepse makes weak start to New Year

KATHMANDU, APR 16 -

Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) started a new year on a weak note with the benchmark index falling by 1.99 points on the first trading day of Nepali New Year. The stock index dropped to 521.42 points as stocks of banking and others that basically represent the stocks of Nepal Telecom performed badly. “This is not disappointing as there has not been big fluctuation,” said Badri Phuyal, chief of Kumari Securities.

He said that the introduction of full budget has brought a positive vive into the capital market. “The market will not see much ups and down until a financial report of the third quarter is published,” he added.

 Among the seven groups whose shares were traded, three sectors including banking, insurance and others witnessed drop in their respective indices, while groups related to hotels, development banks, hydropower and finance companies saw growth.  Banking sector shedded 1.15 points, while other groups lost 11.75 points. Hotel sector topped the gaining groups, rising by 8.88 points.

Kumari Bank’s promoter shares topped the list of biggest loser with its price failing by 8.76 percent while Multipurpose Finance was the top gainer on Monday, with its share price going up by 9.52 percent. The secondary market witnessed a total turnover of Rs 82.55 million through the transactions of 247,928 shares in 1,111 times of transactions. Total market capitalisation of companies traded on Monday stood at Rs 506.4 billion.

Source: The Kathmandu Post