Nepse Begins The Week With A Decline

 

--By Sanjeev Sharma

 

Nepal Stock Exchange Limited (Nepse) index, the barometer of country’s capital market dropped by almost 5.28 points on Sunday, the first trading day of the week. The bench mark index, which was closing at 763.76 on Thursday-- the last trading day of previous week settled at 758.48 points on Sunday. Following the Nepse, Sensitive index representing class ‘A’ listed companies in the secondary market, loses 1.39 points to settle at 169.56. 

 

The fall in Nepse Sunday is attributed by decrease in all sub-indices except Finance sub-index traded in the day. Hotel sub-index was the biggest loser with a fall of 45.23 points (4.01%). Similarly, the sub-indices of ‘Other’, Hydropower and Commercial banks fell by 15.27, 11.34 points and 4.99 points respectively for the day. The Insurance sub-index loses (2.39 points) followed by Development Banks sub-index (0.52 points) and Trading (0.08 points).  

 

Nepse Mostly Down for the Week in Thin Trading

After sharp gains for 6 consecutive weeks, the Nepse index continued its retreat for second week in a row amid thin weekly trading. Nepse closed down by 16.03 points last week. Profit booking strategy of investors along with warnings about the unnatural surge in the index from regulators and top government officials seem to have reined the stock market. Many investors are selling the stocks they bought few months back to secure profit.

 

For the period of 29th December and 3rd January, the number of transactions came down to 11,093 (which was 15,000 last week). In the mean time, altogether 3.6 million units shares that worth Rs 2.27 billion turnovers being sold in the stock market. Last week, Nepse’s turnover fell by 36.18 per cent compared to the previous week. Similarly, the number of transaction and number of share traded also declined by 26 per cent and 33 per cent respectively. However, analysts say that the stock market will rise next week as selling pressure in the market is low despite the decline in the index. This indicates that the demand for shares in the lower price is exceeding its supply, which is expected to boost the price in the near term.    

 

According to the turnover, shares of the Nepal Bangladesh Bank reached the top spot for the week in the market. Nabil Balance Fund-1, meanwhile, climbed to no one spot in terms of the number of units being traded for the week. Likewise, Nepal Telecom maintained its top spot in terms of market capitalization in the domestic market. 

 

Nepse index which opened at 787.36 points on the first day of weekly trading (Sunday) fell by around 16 points to close at 763.76 on the last day of the week (Thursday). Most of the sub-indices listed in the Nepse witnessed decline in their values last week. According to weekly transaction, the Hotel sub-index was the biggest gainer with a rise of 17.16 points. All other sub-indices followed downward trend. Last week, Hydropower sub-index was the biggest loser (82.05 points). Similarly, the sub-index of insurance sector fell 38.29 points followed by commercial banks (19.9 points), development banks (7.6 points), finance companies (2.45 points). Likewise, the ‘Other’ sub-index came down by 2.35 points.  The Manufacturing sub-index remained unchanged as earlier weeks. The Sensitive Index which represents the share trading of blue chip stocks belonging to class ‘A’ listed companies fell 4.25 points last week. 

 

For the week, shares of 125 companies were traded in the stock market. Share prices of 26 companies observed a gain, while price of 73 companies declined last week. Shares prices of 26 companies remained unchanged over the period.