Money
Investors in wait-and-watch mode
Stock analysts said investors are reluctant to either buy or sell shares as the end of the current fiscal year approachesRajesh Khanal
Nepal Stock Exchange shrank 5.27 points to close at 1,264.36 points last week, as investors remained in a wait-and-watch mode, expecting the market to surge with the beginning of the new fiscal year which begins from July 17.
With a downfall in the index, the average daily turnover also slipped to Rs382.98 million, a drop of 24 percent compared to the average of Rs507.21 million in the previous week.
The market opened at Rs1,269.63 points on Sunday and dropped 11.36 points to close at Rs1,258.27 points. On Monday, the market however inched up 2.63 points.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the market declined by marginal values of 2.23 points and 0.2 points respectively. On Thursday, the market added 5.89 points to its index. Eventually, the market index slid 0.41 percent over the review period.
Stock analysts said investors are reluctant to either buy or sell shares as the end of the current fiscal year approaches. “Investors are expecting the government to implement the reform measures related to the stock market which was announced in the budget recently,” said a stockbroker on condition of not disclosing their identity.
The sensitive index that measures the performance of Group A companies also declined 0.24 points to close at 271.61 points.
With a drop in the average price of stocks, investors lost Rs6.34 billion in the book value of their investment portfolio, as the market capitalisation declined to Rs1,573.04 billion from Rs1,579.38 billion.
Except for the indices of commercial bank, trading and hydropower, the eight remaining sub-groups went down last week. Of them, non-life insurance posted the heaviest loss, dropping 140.05 points and closed at 5,239.15 points.
Life insurance shed 86.89 points, followed by manufacturing (33.54 points), hotels (23.59 points), microfinance (16.51 points), finance companies (4.31 points), ‘others’ (3.61 points) and development banks (2.79 points).
Of the two gainers, hydropower and commercial banks picked up 2 points and 0.84 points respectively. The index of trading remained stable at 263.9 points throughout the weekdays’ trading.
Regarding the individual companies, Nepal Bank Limited recorded transaction of its shares worth Rs123.48 million, the largest during the review period. It was followed by Shivam Cements, Prabhu Bank, NIC Asia Bank and Taragaon Regency Hotel. Last week, stocks worth Rs1.91 billion were traded, down 5.44 percent from the previous week. The total number of traded shares also plunged to 6,430,032 units from 6,664,629 units.
NEPSE listed 15,636,984.05 units of primary shares of five listed companies including Nabil Bank, Jebils Finance, Life Insurance Corporation Nepal, Mero Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha and Mithila Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha during the review period.