Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) added 4.32 points to close at 1,563.81 points last week, as the government successfully conducted second phase of local elections while banks reduced the interest rate on their loan portfolio. 

The secondary market that opened at 1,559.49 points on Sunday gained 8.23 points to close at 1,567.72 points. On Monday, the market was closed to celebrate a public holiday, Eid. After the market opened on Tuesday, it dropped 2.63 points to close at 1,565.09 points. The market lost 1.28 points on Wednesday.

On Thursday, stockbrokers launched a protest against the government’s decision to impose value added tax on commission of stockbrokers, shutting down trading. In three days of transaction, the market inclined marginally by 0.27 percent. 

Santosh Mainali, general secretary of Stockbrokers’ Association of Nepal, said the market was influenced mainly by the investors soaring confidence as local elections were held successfully in three provinces. “In addition, banks relaxing the interest rate by nominal amount helped boost investors’ morale” Mainali said. 

With the slight increment in market index, the average value of the shares listed on the stock market also increased by Rs5.72 billion, with market capitalisation reaching Rs1,832.04 billion from Rs1,826.32 billion over the week. 

Along with the Nepse index, the sensitive index that measures the performance of Group ‘A’ companies also increased by 0.76 points to close at 331.66 points.

Of nine trading groups, five posted gains in their indices, three posted losses while one remained stable. Hotels gained the largest of 35.78 points to close at 2,242.4 points. Similarly, development banks gained 10.02 points, insurance gained 7.64 points, commercial banks gained 5.56 points and the index of manufacturing also went up 3.42 points.

Of the three losers, hydropower lost the largest, dropping 15.45 points to close at 1,946.88 points. Finance companies and others lost 2.05 points and 0.87 points respectively. The index of trading was stable at 212.76 points throughout the weekdays.  

Himalayan General Insurance observed the largest turnover of shares worth Rs126.71 million. Mainali said the bank recently announced 166 percent right shares and will observe its book close soon. “This has lured the investors to purchase the insurer’s shares.”

Similarly, Prabhu Bank’s shares worth Rs123.82 million were transacted. Lumbini General Insurance, Standard Chartered Bank Nepal and Everest Bank were also among the top five companies with largest turnover. Likewise, Prabhu Bank topped in terms of number of transactions, with 652,000 units  of shares exchanging hands.

Last week, the shares of 160 listed companies were traded. The transaction amount declined 37.36 percent to Rs1.85 billion. The traded number of shares also fell to 3,414,050 units from 5,292,060 units.