Nepse snaps two-week rally

KATHMANDU, MAY 01 -

The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) registered loss for the second consecutive day, with the benchmark settling 18.26 points down on Monday.

The fall was so rapid that Nepse had to impose circuit breaker twice — first after benchmark index fell by 3 percent, and again after it fell by four percent.

Heavyweight commercial banks and others crumbled 25.41 and 29.37 points, respectively, under immense selling pressure. “It was the selling pressure that led the market down on Monday,” said Anjan Raj Poudyal, president of Stock Brokers’ Association of Nepal.

The banking sub-index’s crash was led by Standard Chartered Bank, Nabil Bank, Nepal Investment Bank, Everest Bank.

The daily Nepse turnover declined to Rs 101.32 million on Monday compared to Sunday’s Rs 152.53 million.

Stock pundits see a further slump. “The impact of positive political development in the capital market has always been brief, and it is economy that drives the market in the long run,” said stock analyst Rabindra Bhattarai. “Therefore, for the market to improve, factors like a cut in bank rates and good performance of listed companies will play key role.”

As the market is dominated by banks and financial institutes and their profits are falling, the growth in market index cannot be sustainable, Bhattarai said. “The market will hover around 350-400 points.”

Janata IPO receives good response

KATHMANDU: Janata Bank Nepal’s initial public offering (IPO) has received a good response from the public and 1.8 million shares worth Rs 180 million has already been subscribed by Monday, the

second day of the IPO worth Rs 600 million. “We had thought that subscription would be

tight, but now we are confident that there will be oversub-scription by two to three times,” said CEO Bijay Pant, adding that a few institutional investors have committed to subscribe its sharers.

Source: Kantipur