Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) last week gained 27.69 points to close at 1,155.46 points, after a number of banks started to lower the interest rate on loan.

It was the second consecutive week that the market picked up points, breaking the bearish trend that had engulfed NEPSE for the longest time.

 With an increase in transaction volume, the average daily turnover also increased to Rs391.20 million last week from Rs244.78 million in the previous week.

The secondary market that opened at 1,127.77 points on Sunday was marginally up on the day, gaining 0.89 points to close at 1,128.66 points. The bull trend was observed also on Monday and Tuesday with an addition of 14.27 points and 20.33 points respectively.

However, on Wednesday, the market went down 13.16 points which according to the stockbrokers, was a result of investors rushing to book the profit that they had earned on the previous three days.

On Thursday, the NEPSE index increased 5.36 points, eventually taking the market up 2.45 percent in overall trading during the review period.

Stock analysts attributed increased demand in the stock market after a number of banks started to reduce their interest rate. “In addition, the Security Board of Nepal announcing lenient policy on enforcing the permanent account number, also helped the market to climb upwards,” said a stockbroker under condition of anonymity.

Last week, the sector’s regulator made the decision to make mandatory the permanent account number for only those who invest more than Rs500,000 on stocks transaction. Along with NEPSE, the sensitive index that measures the performance of blue chip companies also inclined 6.36 points to close at 246.08 points after majority of trading groups picked up points.  

With an increase in the shares prices, investors gained Rs36.88 billion from the market, as the market capitalisation increased to Rs1,414.28 billion from Rs1,377.40 billion.

Except for manufacturing, the remaining ten trading groups’ indices went up during the review period. Life insurance gained the largest of 55.91 points to close at 5,959.67 points. Non-life insurance recorded an addition of 39.84 points in its index.

Likewise, index of hydropower surged 42.49 points, hotels surged 36 points, development banks surged 34.79, commercial banks surged 34.59 points and finance companies surged 14.93 points. Trading, ‘others’ and microfinance gained 8.07 points, 4.46 points and 3.08 points respectively.  

Manufacturing, with a downfall of 8.24 points, was the only loser over the review period.   

Regarding the individual companies, Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower observed the largest amount of shares transaction. Stocks of the hydropower company worth Rs2.65 billion were traded. It was followed by Prabhu Bank, Nepal Life Insurance, Nepal Credit and Commerce Bank and NIC Asia Bank.

Last week, stocks worth Rs1.95 billion were transacted, which was almost double of the turnover amount in the previous week. The total number of traded shares also increased to 6,485,880 units from 3,601,234 units during the review period.

A total of 7,561,965.5 units of primary shares including SBL Debenture, Sanima Debenture, Asha Laghubitta Bittiya Sansthan and Jebil’s Finance were listed at the secondary market.

Right Shares/Bonus Shares

Company    Type    Units

SBL Debenture 2026    IPO    2,162,559

Sanima Debenture 2029    IPO    1,354,712

Asha Laghubitta Bittiya Sansthan    IPO    2,074,000

Jebil’s Finance    Right    1,970,694.5