Nepal Stock Exchange plunged by a whopping 33.18 points to close at 1,157.89 points last week as investor confidence continued to weaken after the government said that it was not interested in boosting the stock market.
With the latest slump, the stock exchange index in the past six weeks has gone down by 106.18 points to a four-month low. The average daily turnover dropped to Rs359.67 million last week from Rs394.20 million in the previous week due to the ongoing bearish trend.
The market which opened at Rs1,191.07 points on Sunday fell 12.61 points to close at Rs1,178.46 points. It was followed by losses throughout the week. Overall, the market was down 2.79 percent during the review period.
Stockbrokers said the ongoing bearish trend in the country’s only secondary market was affecting investor confidence. “Potential investors are staying away from the stock market as they believe that it will continue to sink for the foreseeable future,” said a stockbroker on the condition of anonymity.
Tulsi Ram Dhakal, vice-president of the Nepal Investors’ Forum, said the government’s continued nonchalance in dealing with issues in the stock market was sapping investor confidence.
Speaking at a programme last Sunday, Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada said the government was more concerned with achieving higher economic growth over boosting the stock market. “While the sector’s regulator, the Securities Board of Nepal, has been saying that several laws to regulate the sector were in the pipeline, such a statement from the government is disheartening investors.”
The sensitive index that measures the performance of blue chips companies also went down 6.1 points to close at 253.80 points, with a downfall in share price indices of all 11 trading groups.
Last week, investors lost Rs42.09 billion in the book value of their investment portfolio, after the market capitalisation declined to Rs1,470.58 billion from Rs1,512.67 billion.
During the review period, all 11 trading groups landed in the red. The indices of life-insurance and non-life insurers posted triple-digit losses of 241.59 points and 228.84 points respectively.
Hotels, manufacturing, hydropower, microfinance, ‘others’, development bank and commercial bank witnessed a double-digit fall in their market indices. The shares prices of finance companies and trading went down 7.2 points and 5.23 points respectively.
Last week, stocks worth Rs1.80 billion were traded which was 8.63 percent less compared to the transaction amount registered in the previous week.
Rajesh Khanal is a business reporter for The Kathmandu Post covering insurance, the capital market, trade and macroeconomic issues. Khanal has also taught economics at a number of colleges in Kathmandu.
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