Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) last week dipped 54.65 points to close at 1,475.41 points.
Besides a fall in investor confidence amid a bearish run for the past week, the plunge in the Nepse index has also been attributed to banks’ move to raise interest rates on margin loans.
The secondary market that opened at 1,530.06 points on Sunday inched up 1.29 points to close the day at 1,531.35 points. On Monday, the market shed 16.47 points and closed at 1,514.88 points. The market plunged further 18.89 points and 25.36 points on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, before gaining 4.78 points on Thursday. Overall, the capital market settled the week 3.57 percent lower.
Badri Phuyal, managing director of Kumari Securities Service, termed the downfall “market correction”. “As the market had jumped significantly in a short period of time, the fall is nothing but market correction,” he said. “However, the market was also affected adversely due to falling investor confidence amid a rise in bank interest rates.”
Along with the Nepse index, the sensitive index that measures the performance of Group ‘A’ companies dipped 3.69 points to 318.76 points.
Last week, the total value of shares listed on the exchange declined by Rs53.74 billion, with the market capitalisation dipping to Rs1,649.49 billion from Rs1,703.23 billion.
Of the nine trading groups, indices of seven posted losses. The insurance sub-index (down 330.09 points) was last week’s top loser. Phuyal said the fall in the insurance sub-index was a result of overpricing over the past few months.
The hydropower group stood second on losers’ list, with the sub-index shedding 117.17 points. It was followed by manufacturing (down 84.56 points), commercial banks (down 63.16 points), hotels (down 48.18 points), development banks (down 27.68 points), and finance companies (down 26.09 points).
The gainers were the others group (up 13.88 points) and trading group (up 1.12 points).
Last week, Everest Bank trooped in terms of both the transaction amount (Rs667.15 million) and the number of shares traded (219,000 units). Phuyal said the investors, lured by attractive dividend, rush to buy the bank’s shares before its book-closure last Wednesday.
Holding a transaction of Rs96.09 million, Bank of Kathmandu Lumbini stood second. Chilime Hydropower Company, Siddhartha Bank and Neco Insurance rounded out the top five.
Last week, shares of 156 listed companies were traded. Despite the fall in Nepse, the transaction amount jumped 47.38 percent to Rs2.85 billion. The number of shares traded also rose to 3,632,220 from 3,126,480 units.
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