The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index closed the week down 9.21 points, or 1.74 percent, at 518.77 points on Thursday, the last trading day of the week.[break]
“Political uncertainty played a major role in eroding investor confidence this week,” Stockbroker Anjan Poudel told Republica. “Although the uncertainty over formation of the government was quelled following installation of a technocratic interim government around two weeks ago, investors are now worried over possibilities of holding election as some political parties have already started obstructing voters name list formation process.”
At the same time, arrival of third quarter end has also exerted pressure on many investors as they have to start paying interest on loans that they acquired to purchase stocks. “This has also increased selling pressure causing stock prices to take a dip,” Poudel said. “Besides, launch of mutual fund by Nabil Invest also affected share prices as most of the investors on the secondary and primary markets are same.”
Because of these reasons most of the sub-indices fell over the week. Banking sub-index, which contributes to around 50 percent of the total market capitalization, ended at 521.10 points on Thursday, down from 528.02 on Sunday morning, as share prices of most of the leading commercial banks fell.
Shares of Nabil Bank, which opened on Sunday at Rs 1,880, fell to Rs 1,852 by Thursday. Similarly, stocks of Everest Bank shed Rs 17 over the week to close at Rs 1,575 on Thursday, while shares of Nepal Investment Bank fell Rs 17 over the week to end at Rs 770. Himalayan Bank, another leading domestic bank, also saw Rs 6 erased from its share value over the week to close at Rs 775.
The only exception during the week was shares of Standard Chartered Bank Nepal which gained Rs 4 to close at 1,869.
Shares of another stock market heavyweight, Nepal Telecom also dipped Rs 27 over the week to close at Rs 575 on Thursday.
Nepse"s weekly report shows, share trading over the week also fell 34.46 percent to Rs 324.15 million.
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