Nepse surges to nearly a month-high

Kathmandu, August 18

The impressive profits reported by various banks and financial institutions in their unaudited financial reports propelled Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index to surge by 2.51 per cent or 29.69 points in the trading week between August 12 and 16.

The optimism, however, will be short-lived, warned share market analysts. “It could take another five to six months before the market makes any significant recovery, with a lot depending on the dividends that the banks and financial
institutions provide to the shareholders,” said Ambika Prasad Poudel, chairman of Nepal Investors Forum.

According to him, Nepse index will hover around the psychological threshold of 1,200 points for a while unless the government addresses the concerns of the investors.

The benchmark index opened on Sunday at 1,180.63 points and by the end of the trading day it had lost 16.69 points to close at a 31-month low of 1,163.94 points. However, beating the downward trend of the previous days, the index saw a turn for the better. On Monday, the market increased by 10.43 points to 1,174.37 points and expanded by 6.61 points to 1,180.98 points on Tuesday.

The local bourse further soared on Wednesday by 28.73 points to 1,209.71 points and rose by 0.61 point on Thursday to close the week at 1,210.32 points.

Similarly, sensitive index also ascended by 2.50 per cent or 6.25 points to 255.38 points and the float index rose by 2.72 per cent or 2.31 points to 87.09 points.

In the review period, all the 11 subgroups witnessed gains.

The development banks sub-index was the top gainer in the review week, increasing by 3.68 per cent or 52.16 points to 1,469.33 points. This was due to Kailash Bikas Bank’s share price rising by Rs 13 to Rs 233. Similarly, the non-life insurance subgroup rose by 3.55 per cent or 204.69 points to 5,960.5 points with share price of Everest Insurance gaining Rs 25 to Rs 1,275.

The banking subgroup also expanded by 3.11 per cent or 31.50 points to land at 1,041.32 points. Nabil Bank’s share price soared by Rs 48 to Rs 957. Likewise, the manufacturing sub-index witnessed a gain of 2.97 per cent or 64.15 points to rest at 2,222.47 points. Even as Unilever Nepal’s price fell by Rs 35 to Rs 23,975, the subgroup was propped by share price of Bottlers Nepal (Tarai) increasing by Rs 832 to Rs 6,075.

Meanwhile, the finance subgroup also edged up by 2.59 per cent or 15.64 points to 618.8 points and the trading sub-index ascended by 1.72 per cent or 3.47 points to 204.38 points.

Similarly, others sub-index saw an increment of 1.54 per cent or 11.04 points to land at 723.63 points with the share price of Nepal Telecom rising by Rs 12 to Rs 738. The microfinance subgroup too expanded by 1.36 per cent or 20.59 points to 1,529.47 points.

In the meantime, the life insurance sub-index rose by 0.52 per cent or 30.44 points to rest at 5,801.84 points. The share price of Life Insurance Corporation (Nepal) increased by nine rupees to Rs 1,609.

The hydropower subgroup also rose by 0.48 per cent or 6.89 points to 1,413.46 points and the hotels sub-index inched up by 0.26 per cent or 4.83 points to land at 1,849.77 points.

Altogether, 4.5 million shares of 185 firms worth Rs 1.43 billion were traded through 22,520 transactions during the week. The traded amount was 56.10 per cent higher than the total weekly turnover of the previous week, which was recorded at Rs 918.73 million. In the past week, 3.64 million shares of 181 companies had changed hands through 16,370 transactions.

In the review period, Nepal Life Insurance Company took the lead in weekly turnover with Rs 78.4 million and Mega Bank led in terms of trading volume with 175,000 units of its shares changing hands. In terms of number of transactions, Aarambha Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha was at top, with 1,265 transactions.

Nabil Bank with Rs 49.45 million, Prime Commercial Bank with Rs 38.21 million, Nepal Investment Bank with Rs 37.82 million and Nabil Bank (Promoter) with Rs 37.14 million rounded up the top five companies in terms of weekly turnover.