Stock investors in wait-and-watch mode

KATHMANDU:

As traders have mostly taken a wait-and-watch stance, the stock market witnessed a slight correction during the week.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index rose by a marginal 1.22 points or 0.13 per cent week-on-week to rest at 930.21 points, from October 26 to 30.

Traders say going by the macroeconomic indicators and political scenario, investors are mostly sitting tight at the moment.

“We are not expecting any erratic movement in the near future,” said Pravin Raman Parajuli, chief executive of Nabil Investment — a merchant banking subsidiary of Nabil Bank.

According to him, developments like timely formulation of the constitution would affect the mood of investors.

After the Tihar holidays, the country’s only secondary market had opened on Sunday with the Nepse index at 928.99 points. During the day, it gained 1.34 points and another 4.68 points by Monday’s closing.

However, on Tuesday, the benchmark index tapered some of the gains of the first two trading days by shedding 1.93 points to settle at 933.08 points.

The market remained closed on Wednesday due to Chhath festival. On Thursday, the final trading day of the week, the selling pressure caused the Nepse index to contract another 2.87 points.

The total traded amount in the week topped Rs 999.95 million through dealing of 2.02 million shares in 8,654 transactions.

The sensitive index, which shows the performance of class ‘A’ stocks, declined by 0.26 points to 198.2 points.

Similarly, the float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded also shed 0.2 points to rest at 64.91 points for the week.

While the trading subgroup continued to remain flat at 186.81 points, all the subgroups — apart from banking, hydropower and hotels — recorded gains.

With the share value of banks like Laxmi Bank down Rs 95 to rest at Rs 538, that of Nabil bank closing at Rs 2,325, and of Nepal Credit and Commerce Bank at Rs 600 (both losing Rs 25 each per unit), the banking subgroup contracted by 3.12 points to end the week at 814.35 points.

Close on its heels, the hotels subgroup also lost 4.24 points to end the week at 1,930.93 points, as the share price of Taragaon Regency declined by Rs nine to Rs 300.

The hydropower sector posted a massive loss of 78.49 points to close at 2,334.17 points. Shares of Chilime were down Rs 97 to Rs 1,700; that of Ridi lost Rs 19 to Rs 560 and of Arun Valley at Rs 379, a loss of Rs eight per unit.

On the other side of the spectrum, the insurance subgroup posted triple digit gain of 119.42 points to rest at 4,187.47 points.

The share price of Nepal Life was valued at Rs 4,450 by the week’s closing, up Rs 200. Share value of Life Insurance Co Nepal also booked a hefty gain of Rs 171 to Rs 3,680, while National Life Insurance closed at Rs 2,400, up Rs 23.

Unilever Nepal’s scrips rose by Rs 965 to Rs 16,065, pulling the manufacturing sector up by 50.08 points to 1,253.9 points.

Similarly, Nepal Telecom’s share value went up by Rs four to Rs 619, helping the others subgroup add 4.7 points to 727.23 points.

Finance subgroup also gained 2.57 points to close at 495.02 points. The scrips of Citizens Investment Trust rose by Rs 100 to Rs 3,160, while Pokhara Finance gained Rs six to Rs 240, among others.

The development banks subgroup added a marginal 0.30 points to 687.87 points, with shares of Nagbeli Laghubitta Bikas Bank closing at Rs 1,700, up Rs 129; share value of Summit Micro Finance Development Bank up Rs 86 to Rs 1,106; while of Chhimek Laghubitta Bikas Bank rose by Rs 55 to Rs 1,560.

Soaltee Hotel topped the list of companies making the highest turnover in the week with Rs 65.72 million. Standard Chartered Bank (Rs 62.26 million), Nabil Bank Promoter Share (Rs 48.12 million), Nepal Life Insurance (Rs 45.02 million) and NIC Asia Bank (Rs 43.84 million) secured the remaining top four positions in this segment.

Based on the number of shares traded, Siddhartha Equity Oriented Fund ranked first with 168,000 of its scrips changing hands over the week, whereas Ridi Hydropower Development Co booked the first place in terms of number of transactions with 1,546 dealings.

Source: THT