Nepse slip continues, index tumbles by about 3 pts

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KATHMANDU, March 1 : Rising selling pressure along with slowly slipping confidence of investors due mainly to the heightening confusion regarding initiation of peace talks between the government and Maoists has dragged down the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index for the third consecutive week.

The Nepse, which is regarded as a barometer to gauge investors’ confidence, had recorded at 211.99 point on the opening day, but it slid by 2.73 point during the week to land at 209.26 point on the closing day, according to information issued by the Nepse. The Nepse index had decline by 0.24 point the last week and about 4 points the week previous.

During the week, except for the development bank group, none of the groups enlisted at Nepse managed to retain the market value of their shares. More so was seen in case of the commercial bank group, which was recorded, as the largest loser in index during the week.

The index of the group slid by over 4 points to land at 203.62 point on the closing day against 207.75 point recorded on the opening day. Last week, its index had recorded a marginal increment.

Likewise, the finance group too recorded a tumble of over 2 points in its index during the week. The index of the group fell to 225.70 point on Friday against 227.71 point recorded on Monday, according to Nepse. It had declined last week as well.

The index of the insurance group slid to 253.47 point from 254.68 point during the week, while the index of the development bank group recorded an upsurge of about 4 points after it settled at 262.55 point on Friday against 258.62 point recorded on Monday. Indices of both these groups had declined last week.

Meanwhile, indices of the manufacturing group, the hotels group, the trading group and the other group were maintained constant throughout the week. According to the Nepse, indices of these groups remained at 253.20 point, 200.72 point, 92.85 point and 61.19 point throughout the week respectively. Indices of these groups had remained constant last week as well.

As usual, the commercial bank group captured the largest chunk of stock trading carried out at the Nepse floor during the week. Its trading comprised 67.52 per cent of the total stock trading. It was followed by the finance group at 20.49 per cent and the insurance group at 10.67 per cent.

Likewise, the development bank group captured 0.59 per cent followed by the hotels group, the manufacturing group and the trading group at 0.50 per cent, 0.14 per cent and 0.09 per cent respectively.

Nepal Life Insurance Company topped the list of largest companies recording the highest shares trading in share units and transaction terms. A total of 9,540 shares of the company were traded through 612 transactions. However, it was Nepal SBI Bank, which recorded the highest trading in monetary terms, put at Rs 2.14 million.

Shares of Nabil Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Nepal SBI Bank, NB Bank, Everest Bank, Bank of Kathmandu, NIC Bank, Nepal LIfe Insurance Company, United Finance, International Leasing and Finance and Nepal Development Bank were traded throughout the week.

While shares of Nepal Investment Bank, Himalayan Bank, Alliance Insurance, Union Finance, Nepal Merchant Banking and Finance and Development Credit Bank were traded for four days, shares of Harisiddhi Bricks and Tile Factory, Soaltee Hotel, Salt Trading, Rastriya Beema Samsthan, Nepal Life and General Insurance, Sagarmatha Insurance, Premier Insurance, Citizen Investment Trust and Nepal Housing Development and Finance were traded only once during the week.

Sale of unhygienic meat on rise

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SYANGJA, March 1 : Meat has always been one of the most preferred edible items in Nepal. The high demand of red and fresh meat, mainly of goats and chicken, has also led to a surprising rise in the price of meat in the local market.

Despite being one of the well-demanded edible products, local consumers are facing hard time while purchasing fresh meat. Local consumers here are forced to procure and consume unhygienic meat, as most of meat outlets do not apply any sanitary measures. Most meat shops here operate in dirty and unhygienic places, which has been matter of serious concern to locals.

Only few months ago, some consumers had to face a series of serious health problems due to the consumption of unhygienic and stale meat. One major reason for the soaring practice among local meat vendors of selling unhygienic and stale meat is due to the failure of the concerned authority to conduct a regular monitor of the meat shops to ensure the quality.

Even though the local consumers have repeatedly lodged complaints to District Livestock Service Office, which is endowed with the responsibility of ensuring sale of god quality meat throughout the district, the problem has long been unaddressed. The other factor for the rising malpractice of local meat-vendors is also due to the lack of slaughterhouse in the district. According to the official record, there is only one slaughterhouse in Nepal and that too is located at Hetauda.

Apart from the rising fear created by the open sale of contaminated meat, locals here also are facing the heat due to the high pricing of the meat. Besides the high meat price, the consumers here are also disappointed with the price fluctuations that are seen in the market without convincing reasons.

Besides local consumers, even the senior industrialists of the district are irritated by such discriminatory pricing of meat in the district. "It is amazing that the price of meat in the local market, which is comparatively smaller than the other markets of the country, differs from one shop to another," said Tank Prasad Shrestha, General Secretary of Syangja Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Such malpractice of selling the stale meat that has a high chance of affecting the consumers’ health can be seen easily at every meat shops of the local market.