The market remained closed on Thursday due to public holiday to mark Ghode Jatra festival.The benchmark index, which had shed 21.85 points last week, rebounded this week, as the impact of the Securities Board of Nepal's caution to investors seems to have faded away. Issuing a statement last week, the capital market regulator had urged the investors to become cautious while investing in the stock market fueled largely by speculation.
According to stock brokers, many investors seem to have ignored Sebon's advice. "Though the market down briefly, investors seemed to be in rush to buy the shares in the bullish stock market that is pushing up share prices of most of the listed companies," a stock broker, who requested anonymity, said.
Many investors say that they have reasons to become optimistic. "It is true that the macro-economic fundamentals of the country are not much encouraging now. However, it is all about returns that the listed companies give to the shareholders that motivate us to make investment," Tej Prasad Limbu, an investor, told Republica. "Banks and financial institutions will have to offer more stock dividends in the coming year to meet the new paid-up capital requirement. Similarly, performance of most of the listed companies, including insurance companies, is not so bad, despite all these economic and political problems."
Most of the trading groups ended on the green zone this week. Insurance group was the biggest gainer of the week as its sub-index climbed up 117.56 points to end the week at 6,137.19 points. Manufacturing and Processing group followed suit, gaining 84.69 points to close at 2,139.51 points. Banking, the heavyweight trading group in the secondary market, also ended 25.16 points higher at 1,272.13 points. The sub-indices of Development Bank and Others groups also went up 24.14 points and 21.14 points, respectively, to close the week at 1,364.63 points and 832.94 points. Finance group also went up 18.24 points to settle at 705.66 points. Hotels and Hydropower groups, however, suffered a loss of 9.77 points and 19.27 points, respectively, ending the week at 1,809.04 points and 2,291.43 points. Trading sub-index remained unchanged at 201.38 points.
A total of 3.41 million units of shares of 142 companies worth Rs 2.09 billion were traded in the market this week through 10,869 transactions.
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