KATHMANDU, Feb 6: Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) carried out transactions of shares worth more than Rs 1.109 trillion in the first six months of the current fiscal year, with the hydropower sector leading the share transactions. The total shares traded in the review period were almost fourfold of the amount recorded in the corresponding period in the last fiscal year.
The records with Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) show that a total of 2,569,354,470 units of shares were traded at the country’s secondary market during mid-July 2024 and mid-January 2025. In the same period of FY 2023/24, a total of 808,654,440 units of shares worth over Rs 256.73 billion were traded in the secondary market.
Along with the surge in both the units of shares and traded amount, the NEPSE index also escalated 355.55 points in the review period this year. The market index jumped to 2,595.96 points from 2240.41 points. The government collected Rs 9.82 billion in capital gains tax from share transactions in the first half of 2024/25.
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According to stockbrokers, the share transactions surged this year mainly after the central bank adopted flexible monetary policy for the current fiscal year by removing the Rs 200 million cap on loans for margin trading in share securities by institutional investors. As a result, the margin lending of banks also increased by around 20 percent to Rs 108 billion in the review period. “Investors were attracted to inject money in the secondary market also due to heavy decline in the deposit interest rates and ongoing slowdown of the economic activities in the country,” said a stockbroker.
Hydropower group maintained the largest proportion in the total shares traded during this period. A total of 969,735,000 units of shares of the hydropower companies worth over Rs 360.87 billion were traded during this period. The group made up 32.5 percent in the total traded volume, up from 24.4 percent in the first half of the previous FY.
Of late, the government has given top priority for the promotion of hydropower production along with related infrastructure, with the aim of exporting a substantial amount of electricity to India. “Similarly, declining lending rate of interest of the banks is likely to reduce the construction cost of hydropower plants, while ensuring more dividends to the investors in the segment,” the stockbroker added.
Besides hydropower, investors were found largely attracted in shares of finance and commercial bank groups. These groups recorded turnover of Rs 131.95 billion (11.9 percent) and Rs 124.70 billion (11.2 percent), respectively.
In the past one year spanning mid-January 2024 and mid-January 2025, investors realized capital gains of Rs 972 billion, according to the NRB. During this period, the market capitalization soared to 4.302 trillion from Rs 3.330 trillion.
