Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) dropped 38.79 points to close at 1,658.34 points last week, with investors staying away due to political uncertainties in the buildup to local elections that have been scheduled for May 14.

 The secondary market opened at 1,697.13 points on Sunday plunged 45.52 points to close at 1,651.61 points. After the public holiday on Monday, the market opened on Tuesday, dropping 39.57 points to close at 1,612.04 points.

Narendra Raj Sijapati, managing director of Kalika Securities, said the capital market was mainly affected by the Madesh-based political parties rejecting to participate in the local elections and announcing protests. 

The market on Wednesday offered a brief respite, bouncing back to gain 49.98 points to close at 1,662.02 points. But on Thursday, the market resumed the downward spiral, dropping 3.68 points. The capital market dipped 2.28 percent in overall trading last week. Along with the Nepse index, the sensitive index that measures the performance of Group ‘A’ companies also declined 9.49 points to close at 358.03 points. 

With the fall in Nepse, the value of the shares listed in stock market also went down Rs38.95 billion, with the market capitalisation declining to Rs1,912.20 billion from Rs1,951.15 billion over the week. 

Out of the nine sub-indices, only the sub-index of trading managed to avoid dropping points, remaining stable at 209.25 point throughout the week.

The insurance sub-index witnessed the largest fall, dropping 180.93 points to close at 8,688.07 points. Sijapati said the fall was due to the investors rushing to book profits from the insurance stocks. The stock price of insurance companies had been bullish for the past few weeks.   

The manufacturing sub-index followed in second place, dropping 46.54 points to close at 2,161.45 points. The sub-indices of commercial bank, hydropower and development bank shed 45.45 points, 43.82 points and 27.36 points respectively. Hotel sub-index dropped 13.58 points and the sub-index of ‘others’ dropped 8.68 points with the finance sub-index also losing 0.44 points. 

Last week, Nepal Credit and Commerce Bank observed the largest turnover in both the transaction volume and the number of traded shares. 501,000 shares were traded with a transaction value of Rs217.78 million. According to Sijapati, investors were enticed in buying stocks of the bank as the company closed their books along with offering 50 percent right shares. 

Similarly, Rastriya Beema Company’s stocks worth Rs199.67 million were transacted. Prime Life Insurance, Prabhu Bank and Gurans Life Insurance were also among the top five companies in largest turnover. Last week, the shares of 154 listed companies were traded. 

With Nepse plunging, the transaction amount also dropped 37.69 percent to Rs5.18 billion. The total number of traded shares also declined to 7,516,750 from 14,051,740 units. 

Right Shares/Bonus Shares

Company                      Type            Units

Nepal Life Insurance     General    3,096,429

Kailash Bikas Bank       Bonus    3,950,840

Manjushree Finance       Bonus    350,910

Butwal Power Company    Bonus    1,184,563

Nepal SBI Bank               Bonus    10,889,272

Alpine Development Bank    Bonus    329,353

Purnima Bikas Bank    Bonus    498,220.54

Saptakoshi Development Bank    Bonus    110,000

Sana Kisan Bikas Bank            Bonus    1,006,124.69

Mero Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha    Bonus    200,000

Central Finance                Bonus    555,204.15

Guheswori Merchant Banking and Finance    Bonus    528,730.92

Summit Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha    Bonus    225,000

Lumbini Finance and Leasing Company    Bonus    1,443,750

Sahara Bikas Bank                             Bonus    57,348