Stock market shows signs of improvement

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, May 19: The country’s stock market plunged last week following its downward trend for a few weeks in the past. In the reported week covering May 14 to May 18, the NEPSE index dived by 20.36 points.

The NEPSE index that figured 351.08 on Monday slid to 331.72 on the last day (Friday).

The market however showed signs of improvements from Thursday after it witnessed 11 points dive on Wednesday and seven points slide a day earlier.

The country’s secondary market has witnessed a continuous downfall for several weeks in the past minus nominal improvements during the last two weeks of April.

Seen sector-wise, the NESPSE index of commercial banking sector dropped from 383.49 to 353.42 during the last week. Similarly, the index of the manufacturing and sector came down from 332.97 to 329.55 whereas insurance and finance sector index fell from 325.29 to 324.29.

The index of the trading sector companies remained constant at 119.78, while the hotel sector index rose from 302.76 to 303.49.

During the reported week ending May 18, altogether 72,527 units of shares belonging to 40 companies (out of 55 listed for transaction) were traded on the NEPSE floor for Rs. 39.2 million through 814 transactions, according to the reports received from Nepal Stock Exchange Ltd.

In the week before it, 32,557 units of shares were traded for Rs. 14.5 million through 541 transactions.

The market has witnessed a big fall despite a significant rise in the number of shares traded and the volume of transaction.

So far as the group-wise trading of shares was concerned, as in the past weeks, the commercial banks group had a lead in the market with 76.78 per cent of the total market transaction value.

The finance sector constituted 16.66 per cent of the total share trading volume while the transaction shares of manufacturing sector and insurance sectors made up 3.76 per cent and 1.57 per cent respectively. The transaction values of other sectors remained less than one per cent.

It was the Bank of Kathmandu that topped the list of companies in terms of number of shares traded, number of transaction as well as the volume of transaction. Altogether 21,994 shares of the Bank were traded for Rs. 18.37 million through 193 transactions.

The shares of Nepal Arab Bank, Bank of Kathmandu, Nepal Industrial and Commercial Bank, Annapurna Finance, Sagarmatha Insurance, Lumbini Finance and Leasing Company were traded Monday through Friday while the shares of Nepal Bank Ltd., Himalayan Bank, Nepal SBI Bank, Nepal Bangladesh Bank, Everest Bank Ltd. Hyatt Regency Hotels, Kathmandu Finance and Universal Finance and Capital Market were bought and sold only on four of the five days.

Gorakhkali Rubber Industry, National Insurance Corporation, Lalitpur Finance Company, Nepal Housing and Merchant Finance Company had only one transaction each during the reported week.

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