The market, which was on a downward trend, logged gains this week amid expectations among investors that the current political standoff will be resolved soon.
“The stock market was on a downward trend in the previous weeks as investors' confidence was weak due to the Tarai turmoil and the Indian blockade. Now there are signs that the stalemate will end soon. This lifted the market,” Priya Raj Regmi, president of Stock Brokers Association of Nepal (SBAN), told Republica.
Some say many investors feel political problems do not make much impact in the stock market now. “It has been more than three months that we are seeing this stalemate. Though it will impact macroeconomic fundamentals of the country, investors are trying to shield themselves by investing in securities of companies which are not affected much by the ongoing blockade,” Mohan Baniya, an active investor in the stock exchange, said.
Majority of the trading groups ended on the green zone this week. Insurance group was the highest gainer as its sub-index rose 73.57 points to close at 5,067.14 points. Banking, the heavyweight trading group in the secondary market, also ended 30.92 points higher at 1,034.6 points. Sub-indices of Hydropower and Development Bank groups also jumped 27.52 points and 22.16 points, respectively, to close the week at 1,932.22 points and 1,041.31 points. Finance and Others groups also inched up 1.45 points and 2.35 points to finish at 575.84 points and 771.86 points, respectively. The sub-index of Hotels group, however, went down by 82.01 points to close the week at 1,726.54 points. Manufacturing and Processing group also shed 20.76 points to close at 1,859.08 points. Trading group remained unchanged at 207.97 points.
Meanwhile, Nepse is introducing a new feature on its website that allows stock market investors to see 'market depth'. Market depth refers to a list of buying and selling orders of securities which are organized by price level and updates to reflect real-time market activity.
Once the new feature goes online, investors will not have to depend on the stock brokers to know about the position of buying and selling orders of listed companies in the stock market.
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