The market, which shed value over the last few weeks, observed some recovery this week. The stock market was on a downward trend over the past few weeks due to weakening investors' sentiment as a result of Tarai unrest and Indian blockade."The benchmark index had hit a record high before these untoward incidents started taking toll on the stock market. It was expected to climb higher with the promulgation of new constitution," Narendra Sijapati, former president of Stock Brokers Association of Nepal, told Republica. "However, the prolonged unrest in the Tarai is driving the market down. Though there was a slight improvement this week, the recovery of stock market depends on how early the ongoing problem is resolved."
Hydropower group was the biggest gainer for the week as its sub-index jumped 40.07 points to close at 1,993.2 points. Manufacturing and Processing group, and 'Others' groups followed suit, as their sub-indices climbed up 26.98 points and 17.62 points, respectively, to close at 1,913.12 points and 769.51 points. Insurance group ended 6.35 points higher at 4,547.96 points. Development Bank also went up 1.72 points to close at 918.76 points. Hotels group, however, suffered a loss of 5 points to close at 1,796.3 points. The sub-indices of Banking and Finance groups also went down by 2.67 points and 1.94 points, respectively, to close the week at 1,009.6 points and 553.18 points. Trading group remained unchanged at 207.97 points.
A total of 1.84 million units of shares of 141 companies worth Rs 925.91 million were traded in the market through 6,284 transactions this week. Nepal Bangladesh Bank remained at the top of the list of companies in terms of turnover (Rs 87.54 million) and number of shares traded (147,000 units). Barun Hydropower Company Ltd remained at the top in terms of number of transactions (675).
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