The benchmark index, which opened at 497.67 points on Sunday, fell 0.75 points, or 0.15 percent, to close at 496.92 points on Thursday, the last trading day of the week. The fall was reported as the banking index shed 3.51 points, or 0.74 percent, to close the week´s trading at 467.69 points.[break]
Since stocks of commercial banks contribute to 50 percent of the total market capitalization, any rise or fall in share prices of commercial banks affects the benchmark index.
Apart from banking stocks, share price of Nepal Telecom, which contributes to around 25 percent of the total market capitalization, also lost Rs 5 per share over the week to close at Rs 660 on Thursday. This loss borne by shares of the state-controlled telecom operator also caused the benchmark index to take a dip.
“Investors are not upbeat these days due to political parties´ inability to strike a deal on formation of national consensus government,” a share broker said. “If there is slight hint on improvement in political situation, the stock market would start rising again.”
As investor confidence remained lackluster, total transaction amount also fell by 33.52 percent over the week. Nepse´s weekly report shows the bourse saw total share transaction of Rs 342.53 million over the week, as against Rs 515.28 million reported last week.
In terms of share trading, Nepal Investment Bank led the weekly league table recording transaction of Rs 37.88 million. Second in the list was Chilime Hydropower Company, which reported share transaction of Rs 31.60 million.
Close on the heels of Chilime was Nepal Bangladesh Bank, which posted share transaction of Rs 28.13 million, followed by Global IME Bank and Everest Bank, which recorded share transaction of Rs 21.04 million and Rs 17.19 million, respectively.
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