Money
Nepse up 100 points over last month
Nepal Stock Exchange has jumped around 100 points over the last month on falling interest rates on margin loans.The benchmark index, which closed at 879.33 points on June 5, reached 972.85 points on Thursday. The market capitalisation too has risen to 992.53 billion.
Narendra Raj Sijapati, president of the Nepal Stockbrokers Association, said the market has been on a bullish trend for the last few months. “Faster growth has been observed mainly after the market crossed 600 points,” he said, attributing the growth to increasing investor confidence.
The major contributors to the overall market growth have been commercial banks, insurance and hydropower companies.
Over the last month, the insurance sub-index rose by a whopping 748.47 points to reach 4,258.29 points.
The commercial bank sub-index soared 97.06 points to close at 874.17 points on Thursday, while hydropower companies saw their index grow 322.77 points to 2,932.56 points.
Falling interest rates on margin loans amid surplus liquidity in the banking system has been attributed to the rise in demand for shares. “Amid low interest rates, investors are finding it lucrative to invest in sectors offering high rate of return,” said Sijapati.
Satish Kumar Shrestha of Siprabi Securities said the number of new investors has grown of late. “Besides, investors are also diversifying their investment, which has pushed the indices up,” he said.
The stockbrokers expressed hope the Nepse would surpass 1,000 points with the beginning of the new fiscal year. “High volume of transaction will support the market to rise further,” Sijapati said.
On Thursday alone, the market saw a turnover of Rs 688.67 million from the trading of 1,461,548 shares.
The benchmark had reached its all-time high of 1,175 points on August 31, 2008, before successively plunging to its lowest of 292.31 points on June 15, 2011.