Stock market ends week 3.92 points lower

NEPAL Stock Exchange (Nepse) last week slipped 3.92 points to close at 542.69 points on Thursday. The market had opened at 546.61 points on Sunday. The week’s largest single-day fall came on Monday when the market fell 5.68 points, but recovered some losses later in the week. Navaraj Pokharel of Opal Securities termed the fall in the benchmark index “market correction”. “As Nepse witnessed an upward trend in previous weeks, a slight downturn is normal,” he said. Pokharel said Monday’s fall was due to small investors’ concerns that the sale of 19 percent bank promoters’ shares could affect the market adversely. “These investors show quick response to even a small possible change in the secondary market,” he said. Of the nine trading groups, Hotels, Insurance Companies and Development Banks posted gains. Hotels registered the highest gain of 16.14 points. The group representing Hydropower Companies led the losers’ side with a downfall of 22.57 points. Other groups posting loses were Commercial Banks, Others, and Finance Companies. The sub-indices of Manufacturing and Trading groups were stable at 879.30 and 172.23 points, respectively. The sensitive index that measures the transaction of ‘A’ category companies declined marginally by 0.69 points and closed at 136.36 points. Pokharel said the market could move upwards in the following weeks as most of the banks and financial institutions have so far published healthy financial statements. Last week, NIC Asia Bank posted the highest individual transaction of Rs 45.82 million. Everest Bank, Chilime Hydropower Company, Global IME Bank and Nepal Life Insurance Company were among the top five companies in terms of transaction worth. Nabil Balance Fund, with the trading of 226,096 shares, topped in terms of the number of shares traded on the exchange. The overall market transaction dropped 22.45 percent to Rs 676.1 million from the previous week’s Rs 871.8 million. The number of shares traded was also declined to 2,071,930 units from 2,981,847 units. ‘A’ category companies witnessed a turnover of Rs 345.7 million — 51.14 percent of the total market turnover.