Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) increased marginally by 0.56 points to close at 1,582.67 points last week, as the provisions introduced by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) in its monetary policy was not what investors were hoping for.

The secondary market that opened at 1,582.11 points on Sunday, gained 2.04 points to close at 1,584.15 points. Transactions soared on the day with a turnover of Rs1.12 billion as the market awaited NRB’s unveiling of the monetary policy for the next fiscal year.

After the monetary policy was announced, the market responded negatively on Monday, dropping 8.93 points to  close at 1,575.22 points. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the market gained 9.79 points and 2.55 points respectively before observing a fall of 4.89 points on Thursday. 

Anjan Raj Poudel, managing director of Thrive Brokerage House, said the market remained fairly stable even while investors felt hesitant to invest in the secondary market due to the provisions maintained in the monetary policy. “The investors had been expecting the policy to come up with a provision to ease the loan against the shares and a reduction in interest rate, but it was not that case,” Poudel said. 

 Despite a rise in overall index, the sensitive index that measures the performance of Group ‘A’ companies fell nominally by 0.06 points to close at 336.04 points.

With the slight increase in market index, the average value of the shares listed on the stock market also went up Rs2.32 billion, with market capitalisation reaching Rs1,856.82 billion from Rs1,854.50 billion over the week. 

Of the nine trading groups, only three posted a gain in their indices. Manufacturing gained the most, at 9.89 points to close at 2,366.58 points. Similarly, ‘others’ gained 8.39 points and commercial banks gained 6.22 points. Poudel said commercial banks’ index remained fairly stable as most of the banks had already come up with the dividends for the next fiscal year. 

Five trading groups posted losses, with the hotel sub-index dropping the most, losing 51.96 points to close at 2,221.57 points. Poudel said the group has failed to attract investors as it could not guarantee investors with good returns in recent days. Likewise, insurance also lost 45.98 points followed by hydropower (21.94 points), finance companies (13.3 points) and development banks (8.36 points. 

The index of trading was stable at 212.76 points throughout the weekdays.  

Promoter shares of Nabil Bank observed the largest turnover of shares worth Rs302.94 million. Similarly, Nepal Life Insurance’s shares worth Rs253.83 million were transacted. Soaltee Hotel, Nepal Credit and Commerce Bank and Forward Community Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha were also among the top five with largest turnover. 

Likewise, NMB Sulav Investment Fund 1, saw 2,715,000 units of shares exchanging hands and topped in terms of number of transaction. 

Last week, shares of 168 listed companies were traded. The transaction amount soared 59.43 percent to Rs4.20 billion. The traded number of shares also increased to 11,438,390 units from 7,023,630 units. 

Right Shares/Bonus Shares

Company Type Units

Reliable Development Bank Bonus 2,218,888.22

Surya Life Insurance Bonus 312,500

Deprosc Laghubitta Bikas Bank Right 2,579,238.45

Bhargav Bikas Bank Right 1,200,000