Election of Dr Baburam Bhattarai, who had termed stock market ´a gambling spot´ when he was the finance minister, to the post of Prime Minister also dampened investors sentiment, according to stock market analysts.[break]
The Sensitive Index, which represents the trading of Category ´A´ companies listed in the secondary market, also fell by 2.77 points to end the day´s trading at 82.51 points.
Share analyst Rabindra Bhattarai said recent directives of Nepal Rastra Bank that tightened dividend distribution has made negative impact on the capital market.
“Nabil Bank´s announcement of distributing only 30 percent cash dividend has discouraged investors. It also affected share value of Standard Chartered Bank on the day,” he added. Bhattarai expects share prices to drop further in the days to come.
Share price of Standard Chartered Bank, which contributes around 9 percent of total market capitalization -- total value of shares in the market, tumbled by Rs 155 per share to Rs 1,550 on the day. Nabil Bank´s share price also dropped by Rs 118 per unit to close at Rs 1,062 per unit.
During Sunday´s trading, all the trading groups, except the Hydropower group, saw their sub-indices go down.
The Banking sub-index - the dominant group in the secondary market -- fell by 15.25 points to settle at 297.23 points. Similarly, Hotels, Development Bank and Finance groups also saw their sub-indices go down by 0.95 points, 1.78 points and 1.3 points to settle at 387.32 points, 284.85 points and 285.74 points respectively. The sub-indices of Insurance and Others groups also moved into the red-territory, shedding 3.13 points and 5.87 points to close the day´s trading at 415.12 points and 475.87 points respectively.
Total stock turnover was recorded at Rs 20.07 million with 81,299 units of shares changing hands through 1,155 transactions. Total market capitalization touched Rs 300 billion on the day.
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