Stock market up 7.97 points, banks gain

THE Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) last week gained 7.97 points, which analysts said was due to reports that central bank would hike the minimum paid-up capital requirement for banks and financial institutions (BFIs). The market which opened at 487.63 on Sunday closed at 495.60 points on Thursday. The benchmark index posted gains in the first four trading days before falling marginally on the final trading day of the week. On Tuesday, the Nepse index surged by 4.96 points — its largest single- day gain in a month. Nepal Stock Brokers’ Association’s President Narendra Raj Sijapati said reports about the possible hike in the paid-up capital requirement for BFIs played a crucial role in increasing prices of BFIs’ shares, which pushed up the entire market. “Investors could have been enticed by the ho

pe of benefiting from the possible issuance of rights and bonus shares by BFIs to increase their capital,” he said. Commercial banks’ group saw a double-digit rise in its subindex, while the Others group was last week’s biggest gainer (up 14.10 points). Finance Companies’ sub-index also posted gains. Last week’s losers were Insurance Companies, Hotels, Development Banks and Hydropower Companies. Indices of manufacturing and trading groups were stable at 878.17 and 177.05 points, respectively. The sensitive index that measures transactions of ‘A’ category companies was up 2.36 points to close at 123.96 points. Everest bank posted the highest individual transaction of Rs 47.43 million. Chilime Hydropower Company, Bank of Kathmandu, Kumari Bank and International Leasing and Finance were among the top five companies in terms of transaction worth. Nabil Balance Fund, with trading of 857,892 shares, topped in terms of the number of shares traded. The overall market transaction grew by 9.11 percent to Rs 428.5 million from the transaction of 262,977 shares. Previous week, the market turnover was at Rs 392.7 million from the transaction of 1,587,650 shares. ‘A’ category companies witnessed a turnover of Rs 232.5 million — 54.27 percent of the total transaction. The surge in the benchmark index has been attributed to reports that central bank would hike the minimum paid-up capital requirement for BFIs