Easy accessibility of margin loans props up secondary market

Kathmandu, September 15

Increased liquidity, evident by banks and financial institutions offering margin loans at reduced interest rates helped prop up the country’s sole secondary market for the third consecutive week.

According to Uttam Aryal, chairman of Nepal Investors’ Association, easy accessibility of margin loans has boosted
investor sentiment.

Compared to average interest rate on margin loans at 14 per cent a month ago, a number of banks have already lowered the rates to around 10 per cent. “The banks seem to be racing to lower the rates to expand their margin loan portfolio, which has boosted the confidence of share investors.”

While Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index clocked a gain of 1.22 per cent or 15.07 points between the trading week of September 9 and 13, the turnover, trading volume and number of transactions in the review period slipped compared to the preceding week, when the market had remained open for only four days compared to normal five days.

In the review week, Nepse recorded average daily turnover of Rs 420 million or 27.17 per cent lower than daily transaction amount of Rs 803 million in the past week. Compared to previous week’s 10.25 million shares changing hands through 32,285 transactions, 10.02 million shares of 186 companies were traded through 23,611 transactions this time around.

Opening at 1,229.77 points on Sunday, the benchmark index had gone down by 10.79 points by the end of the day. On
Monday, the market fell by another 8.10 points. Thereafter, however, the local bourse reversed course — adding 6.77 points to 1,217.65 points on Tuesday, gaining by 13.06 points on Wednesday and jumping by 14.13 points on Thursday — to close the week at 1,244.84 points.

The sensitive index rose by 1.50 per cent or 3.92 points week-on-week to 264.27 points and the float index also went up by 1.33 per cent or 1.19 points to 90.14 points.

The others, banking, manufacturing, hotels, development bank, microfinance and trading subgroups landed in the green zone in the review period.

The others subgroup led the pack of gainers, soaring by 2.91 per cent or 21.45 points to 756.76 points with share price
of Nepal Telecom up Rs 29 to Rs 789.

The banking subgroup increased by 1.92 per cent or 20.62 points to 1,092.93 points as share value of commercial banks like NIC Asia Bank went up by Rs 35 to Rs 413. Similarly, the manufacturing sub-index advanced by 1.87 per cent or 41.95 points to 2,274.89 points, with Unilever Nepal Ltd gaining Rs 947 to Rs 24,663.

The hotels subgroup rose by 1.60 per cent or 30.08 points to 1,907.26 points due to share price of Soaltee gaining six
rupees to Rs 256. Likewise, development banks sub-index went up by 1.09 per cent or 16.15 points to 1,493.49 points.

The microfinance subgroup climbed up 1.01 per cent or 15.37 points to 1,529.52 points, as Chhimek rose by Rs 22 to
Rs 935. Similarly, the trading sub-index also inched up by 0.20 per cent or 0.42 point to 208.72 points.

On the contrary, non-life insurance sub-index dropped by 2.30 per cent or 137.70 points to 5,833.44 points as Everest
Insurance’s share value decreased by Rs 84 to Rs 1,220.

The life insurance subgroup went down by 1.34 per cent or 76.17 points to 5,572.21 points.

The hydropower subgroup also dipped by 0.92 per cent or 12.99 points to 1,392.49 points and finance lost 0.74 per cent or 4.64 points to 615.11 points.

In the review period, NIC Asia Bank took the lead in terms of trading volume, number of transactions and weekly turnover — with 439,000 of its shares worth Rs 174.56 million changing hands through 1,114 transactions.

NMB Bank with Rs 136.55 million, Global IME Bank with Rs 92.71 million, Kumari Bank with Rs 91.58 million and Prabhu Bank with Rs 81.59 million were the other top firms in terms of weekly turnover.

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Source: Nepse

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