Money
Nepse records new single-day high of Rs2.24b
The Nepal Stock Exchange witnessed the highest single-day transaction on Monday, with the secondary market crossing Rs2.24 billion mark. Nepse surged 39.66 points to close at 1,838.49 points on the day.The Nepal Stock Exchange witnessed the highest single-day transaction on Monday, with the secondary market crossing Rs2.24 billion mark. Nepse surged 39.66 points to close at 1,838.49 points on the day.
Stakeholders have attributed the record surge to the reduced broker commission rate, leading to more investments on stocks. The market, according to them, was backed by the good financial reports posted by the banks and financial institutions. “The investor’s trading expenses reduced after the new provision of reduced broker commission came into effect, boosting investors’ morale,” said Rabindra Bhattarai, a stock market analyst. “Moreover, the market is largely backed by banks and financial institutions as they have started to file in good financial reports than previous year.”
Despite facing the impact of prolonged Indian embargo, Nepal’s banking sector has been posting good profits.
The market was largely driven by the commercial banks which saw a total turnover of Rs1.2 billion. The banking index saw a rise of 42.09 points to close at 1,736.33. The commercial banks have the largest share in the total volume of listed stocks. The insurance companies and the development banks were the distant second and third with shares worth Rs398 million and Rs327 million changing hands respectively. “Two major factors—financial reports and lowered broker commission—have lifted the investors’ confidence as they traded shares,” said Suchita Khanal, managing director of Sweta Securities. “Moreover, the increase in trading hour has also led to such a rise.”
According to Khanal, the transaction volume might surge further in the coming days as talks on to increase the number of system-logins for brokers from the current two to three. This will enable more transactions at the same time. Eight out of the top 10 gainers are commercial banks. Siddhartha Bank topped the charts for the day with a turnover of Rs193.6 million, followed by Prime Commercial Bank (Rs106.2 million) and Nepal Bangladesh Bank (Rs100.1 million). Indices of all the sectors except hydropower rose, while the share prices that of a majority of the micro-finance companies took a dip. Stakeholders say the investors’ interest in the stocks of micro-finance companies has waned for fear of loss in their profitability following the revision of the interest spread rate as per the new monetary policy. Out of the top 10 losers, six are micro-finance companies with Kisan Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha losing nearly 8 percent of its value.