Political consensus rumors propel Nepse

KATHMANDU, Dec 15:

Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) shot up by a whopping 39.38 points on Sunday -- the first trading day of the week -- to close at 910.01 points. This is the biggest single day gain that Nepse has logged since November 9 when the benchmark index had climbed up 44.5 points.

The index posted massive gains on the day amid rumors in the Nepse trading floors that political parties were nearing consensus on constitution drafting process. Bar some minor daily gains, Nepse was on a freefall for the past few weeks.

“The market had gone down significantly in the past few weeks. Today´s jump in the benchmark index was mainly due to buoyant sentiment among investors due to rumors that political parties were inching closer to consensus in regard to constitution drafting process,” Gunanidhi Bhusal, managing director of Aryatara Investment -- a brokerage firm -- told Republica. “Also, there are reports that CDS and Clearing has finalized the procedure for banks to issue loans against dematerialized shares. This has also created positive vibes among investors.”

Though Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has already issued a directive to the banks in regard to lending against demat shares, investors complain that the banks are reluctant to issue loans, citing lack of working procedures.

All trading groups ended the on green zone on Sunday. The Hydropower, Hotels and Insurance groups registered triple-digit jump, adding 144.03 points, 142.06 points and 115.84 points, respectively, on their sub-indices to close at 2,289.85 points, 2,051.21 points and 3,756.19 points. Similarly, Banking, the heavyweight trading group in the secondary market, also shot up by 43.5 points to close at 809.65 points.

 The sub-indices of Development Bank and Others groups also went up by 18.73 points and 14.1 points to settle at 668.34 points and 724.88 points, respectively. Manufacturing and Processing, and Finance groups also logged gains of 9.08 points and 4.93 points, respectively, to end the day at 1,273.46 points and 471.23 points.

Though the benchmark index bounced back after a long slump, the daily turnover is still below the average daily turnover registered three months ago. A total of 1.07 million units shares of 124 companies worth Rs 282.36 million were traded in the market through 2,210 transactions on the day.
Average daily turnover in Nepse in August was Rs 300 million, statistics show

SOurce: Republica