This is the third straight week that the benchmark index has lost value. The market had shed a total of 21.32 points in the previous two weeks.
Stock brokers have termed drop in Nepse index as market correction. They said the correction was mainly due to the new measure introduced by the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) regarding provisioning of loans for the bank and financial institutions (BFIs). "The provision requiring BFIs to set aside five percent of the loans under 'watch list' is likely to affect the balance sheet of the BFIs as well as their profit and returns to investors. This has left investors of the secondary market worrying," Narendra Sijapati, former president of Stock Brokers Association of Nepal (SBAN), told Republica. "The fall in benchmark index also because of worsening political situation and protest announced by the opposition UCPN (Maoist).
All trading groups ended on the red zone this week. Hotels group was the biggest loser of the week as its sub-index plunged 80.56 points to close at 1,927.64 points. 'Others' and Insurance groups followed the suit with their sub-indices going down by 56.38 points and 55.23 points, respectively, to settle at 706.08 points and 4,054.07 points. Hydropower group also shed 36.74 points to close at 2,168.04 points. Banking, the heavyweight group, shed 15.54 points to close at 822.01 points, while the sub-indices of Development Bank, and Manufacturing and Processing groups were down 12.37 points and 8.45 points, respectively, to close the week at 797.1 points and 1,464.23 points. Finance group also shed 3.11 points to close at 535.44 points. The sub-index of Trading group remained unchanged at 196.93 points.
A total of 2.54 million units of shares of 165 companies worth Rs 1.52 billion were traded in the secondary market this week through 7,045 transactions. The turnover is 23.52 percent higher than the total transaction amount recorded last week.
Nepal Life Insurance Company Ltd topped the list of companies in terms of turnover (Rs 715.8 million). Similarly, Global IME Bank Ltd (Promoter) and Global IME Bank Ltd remained at the top of listed companies in terms of terms of number of shares traded (264,000) and transactions (268), respectively.
Meanwhile, a total of 5.47 million units of bonus shares of NLG Insurance Company Ltd, Laxmi Bank, and Lumbini Bank were listed for trading in the secondary market this week.
Related story
Nepse marginally lower in week after last session recovery
