ECONOMY  

Kathmandu Sunday February 11, 2001 Magh 29,  2057.

Weekly Nepse Index slumps seven points

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Feb 10 - Following the last week’s drop of Nepse Index by 3-points, the Index slump by over 7 points this week, throwing cold waters yet again on speculative investors’ expectations, whose confidence had propped up last week as a result of a 8-point gain the week before.

While the opening Index on the first day of trading, which is Monday, stood at 462.52, the Index closed at 455.34 at the end of trading Friday. The index last week had tumbled by 3.02 points and had settled at 465.39 at the weekly closing.

However, the stock market in the previous week had sprouted by over 8 points to touch 467.37, whereas the index three weeks ago had plunged by 4 points to settle at 458.37 points, was one of the lowest in the recent weeks.

On a group wise basis, the index of the commercial bank group, during this week, decreased marginally to touch 537.51 points from last week’s 551.81 points. Since the commercial bank group alone captures usually over 90 per cent of the total share transaction, any fluctuation in its index is automatically reflected in the overall Nepse Index.

The Index of manufacturing and processing group during the week too declined from 374.63 to 373.44. Last week, the Index for the group had remained unchanged. However, the index for hotel group, which had fallen 20 points and 6 points consecutively in the past two weeks, showed an impressive improvement rebounding by 18 points from the opening Index of 330.62 to 348.99.

The indices for other and finance groups also showed some swinging, the Index in the first case falling from 292.74 to 274.62, while in the second case, the Index rose 3 points from 350.80 to 353.40. However, the Index of trading group during the week remained unchanged at 116.75.

Group wise trading information for this week reveal that the participation of commercial banks in the overall transaction improved from last week’s 83.42 per cent to 89.35 per cent. Consecutive participation of commercial banks two weeks preceding the last week had been 92.88 per cent and 92.02 per cent respectively.

Similarly, the participation of the manufacturing and processing group improved marginally to captured 1.03 per cent as against 1 per cent last week and 1.84 per cent the week before. Similarly, the participation of the insurance group, during the weekly share transaction, was 1.83 per cent, other group 0.75 per cent, the hotel group 0.17 per cent and trading group 0.02 per cent. Participation of the trading group last week was zero.

Similarly, the participation of the finance group witnessed a decline. Its participation in the weekly share transaction stood at 6.82 per cent, against 13.26 per cent last week and 2.36 per cent the previous week.

However, despite the weak Nepse Index this week, the value of transaction has almost doubled. In a total 1225 transaction this week, 49606 share units worth Rs 49.8 million were exchanged, as against 35622 share units valued at Rs 26.98 million in 1058 transactions last week. Trading two weeks ago had stood at 50,028 shares valued at Rs 48.90 million in 749 transactions whereas, three weeks ago, Nepse floor had witnessed exchange of 39,449 shares valued at over Rs 31.36 million in 609 transactions.

On a segregated basis, the Nepse market showed mixed results during the week with different companies topping the list in terms of value of transaction, number of share units transacted and the number of transaction.

Lumbini Finance topped the list in terms of the number of transaction. 5400 shares of the company valued at Rs 1.43 million was traded in 296 transactions. Similarly, Bank of Kathmandu emerged as the leader in terms of the number of shares transacted. In 122 transactions, 11011 shares of the bank were traded. In the like manner, Nepal SBI Bank topped the list based on the value of transaction. 5520 shares of the company worth Rs 13.21 were traded in 189 transactions.

Share trading, last week, in terms of number of transactions and share units was led by Lumbini Finance and Leasing Company, whose 8,110 shares were traded in 481 transactions. However, in terms of value of transaction, Bank of Kathmandu had been ranked first with Rs 6.7 million.

During the transaction this week, fifty-six companies had quoted their price for trading, out of which, shares of forty-nine companies were traded. Nepse opened all five working days during the week.

Companies, whose shares were traded for all five days, include Nepal Bank Limited (Rs 535 - 500), Nepal Grindlays Bank (Rs 2680 - 2650), Nepal Bangladesh Bank (Rs 2730 - 2714), Everest Bank (Rs 973 - 950), Bank of Kathmandu (Rs 1340 - 1180), NIC Bank (Rs 585 - 530), Necon Air (Rs 205 - 190), Nepal Housing and Finance Company (Rs 173 - 170) and Lumbini Finance and Leasing Company (Rs 285 - 263).

Companies whose shares were traded only four days in the week are Nepal Indosuez Bank (Rs 2425 - 2445), Himalayan Bank Limited (Rs 2515 - 2260), Everest Insurance (Rs 520 - 520), Kathmandu Finance (Rs 335 - 350) and Citizen Investment Fund (Rs 185 - 190).

Finally, companies whose shares were traded for only one day include Bhrikuti Paper Mill, Salt Trading Corporation, Soaltee Hotel, Nepal Insurance, Himalayan General Insurance, Film Development Corporation, Nepal Share Markets, Narayani Finance, Universal Finance, General Finance, Samjhana Finance, Yeti Finance and Gorkha Finance, among others.