NEPSE index slips further

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Feb 2: The country’s stock exchange index once again slipped nearly one and half a points during the last week (January 28 to February 1) following 0.89 points fall during the previous week.

The stock market index has gone down consecutively for the last eight weeks excepting a nominal rise a couple of weeks ago.

The Nepalese stock market has shown a bearish trend in the recent weeks as the investors have not been forthcoming to invest on the shares due mainly to the uncertain politico-economic environment.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index that stood at 252.83 on Monday slipped to 251.41 by the time it closed on Friday.

The financial experts and market observers maintain that the absence of a long term and favourable market policy is the main cause behind the poor performance of stock market.

Though there is no sign of improvement in the near future, experts believe that the transactions can go up if the government takes measures to promote the capital market by implementing favourable promotional measures.

During the reported week, the shares of 33 companies out of the 50 enlisted ones were traded on the NEPSE floor. The indices slipped group-wise too except in case of the hotel and financial sectors which witnessed slight improvements. The index of the hotel sector rose from 229.53 to 230.30 while the financial sector index went up from 293.40 to 293.42.

The index of the commercial banking sector fell from 249.88 to 247.7; development bank sector index dropped from 281.09 to 280.61; and the insurance sector index came down to 287.30 from 287.78 earlier.

The index of the manufacturing and trading sectors remained constant at 305.30 and 103.60 respectively.

The commercial banks sector accounted for 62.21 per cent share in the total rupees’ volume of transaction on the floor in the reported week. Finance sector’s share remained at 12.81 per cent while the hotel and insurance sectors accounted for 4.14 per cent and 2.43 per cent respectively. The share of other sectors was negligible.

Nepal Development Bank topped the list of companies in terms of the volume of trade, number of transactions as well as the number of shares traded. There were a total of 590 transactions of the Bank during the reported week in which 11,390 shares worth Rs. 1.83 million were bought and sold.

The NEPSE floor remained open on four of the five working days during the last week. There were a total of 1,193 transactions in which 39,184 shares were traded for Rs. 10.01 million.

During the earlier week, there were 886 transactions in which 48,727 shares were traded for Rs. 15.85 million.

The major closings during the reported week included Standard Chartered Bank Nepal (1650-1650), Everest Bank Ltd. (475-460), Nepal Bank Ltd. (305-300), and Bank of Kathmandu (308-300).