Transaction volume at Nepse plunges by 35 per cent
KATHMANDU, MAR 31:
Since investors are lying low for the market to become a bit more positive, transaction volume at the stock exchange went down this week — March 24 to 28.
Investors are not keen in share trading at the current level and the transaction volume this week plunged by 35 per cent and the Nepse index too fell by 9.22 points.
The trading floor witnessed trading of 1.03 million unit shares worth Rs 324.1 million of 107 companies in 4499 transactions. Last week, transaction volume stood at Rs 494.6 million. This week, not only transaction volume, but the number of shares traded, number of transactions and number of scrips traded also went south.
Public offerings of Commerz and Trust Bank Nepal, and Nabil Balanced Fund I, have tied up investable funds worth Rs 15 billion curbing the ability of investors to buy stocks, leading to a contraction in transaction.
The market that had opened at 527.88 points on Sunday afternoon reached 519.56 points by the end of the day. The index crawled up to 521.93 points on Monday. However, in the next two trading days, it went south and by the end of the week it was at 518.66 points.
Share trading of blue chip stocks belonging to class ‘A’ companies comprised of 52.73 per cent of total trading, amounting to Rs 179 million. The sensitive index declined by 2.67 points. Likewise, the float index that shows the performance of actual shares traded also declined by 0.47 points to 36.8 points.
This is the second week in a row that the share price of Nepal Telecom (NT), which has the biggest market capitalisation in the stock exchange, has dipped, affecting the overall performance of the market. NT’s share price was down by Rs 27 in the week’s trading. The others subgroup went down by 31.72 points.
Only finance companies and the manufacturing subgroup were able to record any gains this week. Bottlers Nepal Terai’s share price appreciated by Rs 49 and manufacturing gained 3.24 points.
Banking lost 6.92 points as share prices of major commercial banks declined. Likewise, hydropower went down by 8.4 points as Arun Valley Hydropower, Butwal Power and Chilime Hydropower lost Rs nine, Rs two and Rs 11 in the week’s trading. Hotels index also declined by 19 points. Likewise, insurance companies and development banks lost 11.81 points and 3.02 points, respectively.
This week too, Nepal Bangladesh Bank topped the charts in terms of transaction volume and number of shares traded with trading of 142,149 unit shares worth Rs 46 million. Civil Bank was the forerunner in number of transactions with 451 transactions.
This week, top five companies in terms of turnover were Nepal Bangladesh Bank (Rs 46.01 million), Everest Bank (Rs 23.46 million), Nabil Bank (Rs 22.61 million), Nepal SBI Bank (Rs 20.15 million) and Bank of Kathmandu (Rs 19.67 million).
Source: THT
