Money
Investors flock to Nepse, up 29.69pts
Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) added 29.69 points to close at 1,210.32 points last week after investors flocked to invest in commercial banks and insurance companies in particular, expecting to receive handsome dividends in the future. These companies had posted good financial health in the last fiscal year.Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) added 29.69 points to close at 1,210.32 points last week after investors flocked to invest in commercial banks and insurance companies in particular, expecting to receive handsome dividends in the future. These companies had posted good financial health in the last fiscal year.
This positive move at the country’s only stock exchange market, which was undergoing a bearish trend in the past few weeks, has reaped hope among potential investors. Along with the Nepse, the average daily transaction amount also increased to Rs286.65 million from Rs183.74 million in the previous week.
Nepse opened at 1,180.63 points on Sunday, lost 16.69 points to close at 1,163.94 points.
On Monday, the market gained 10.43 points to close at 1,174.37 points. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Nepse added up 6.61 points, 28.73 points and 0.61 points respectively. Consequently, the market closed with a gain of 2.51 percent in overall trading days during the review period.
Stockbrokers attributed the rise in Nepse to an improved confidence among investors, which is a result of the significant profit amount reported by most of the banks and insurance companies in the last fiscal year. “At a time when the market is in a slump, the possibility of these listed companies offering a good deal of dividends has largely encouraged investors,” said a stockbroker who chose to be anonymous.
The sensitive index that measures the performance of Group ‘A’ companies also went up 6.25 points to close at 255.38 points, with all listed companies including commercial banks in the green.
Along with a fall in the market index, the average value of the shares listed in the stock market also rose by Rs35.32 billion, as the market capitalisation surged to Rs1,440.16 billion from Rs1,404.84 billion.
Last week, all 11 trading groups added points in their indices. Non-life insurance was the largest gainer—adding 204.69 points in its index, followed by manufacturing (64.15 points), development bank (52.16 points), commercial bank (31.5 points), life insurance (30.44 points) and microfinance (20.59 points).
Similarly, finance companies gained 15.64 points, ‘others’ gained 11.04 points, hydropower gained 6.89 points, hotels gained 4.83 points and trading gained 3.47 points.
From the list of individual companies, Nepal Life Insurance led in terms of transaction amount. During the review period, Rs78.4 million worth of shares from the insurer were traded.
Similarly, Nabil Bank’s shares worth Rs49.45 million were transacted. Prime Commercial Bank, Nepal Investment Bank and promoters’ shares of Nabil Bank were also among the top five companies in the segment. Likewise, Mega Bank with observing turnover of 175,000 units of shares led in terms of number of traded shares.
Last week, stocks of 185 listed companies were traded. Along with a rise in market index, the transaction amount also increased by 56.10 percent to Rs1.43 billion.
The traded number of shares also increased to 4,502,450 units from 3,647,840 units.