The market was on a recovery course in the last couple of weeks amid sign of thaws between the government and the dissenting parties. The stock market, however, reverted to the downward trend as there was no progress in talks to end the ongoing stalemate.The benchmark index has lost 95.16 points since it hit all time high of 1205.84 points on September 15. "The index would have climbed up further after setting a record high had there been no border obstructions and Tarai unrest. Generally, second quarter of fiscal year is the time when listed companies, particularly bank and financial institutions, offer dividend and hold annual general meeting, encouraging investors to get hold of the shares to enjoy the dividend," Anjan Raj Poudyal, former president of Stock Brokers Association of Nepal, said. He also said investors may not want to hold shares for long as BFIs have already distributed dividend. "They might not want to hold shares for one more year to get dividends. They also are less to buy shares in this downturn situation," he added.
Hydropower group was the biggest loser of the week as its sub-index ended 30.65 points lower at 1,904.7 points. The sub-index of Banking, the heavyweight group in the secondary market, also shed 24.89 points to settle at 1,003.68 points. Finance sub-index also went down by 4.76 points to close the week at 574.39 points.
Insurance was the biggest gainer of the week as its sub-index jumped 190.78 points to close at 4,993.57 points. Development Bank and 'Others' groups also ended on the green zone with their sub-indices going up by 13.42 points and 5.87 points, respectively, to 1,019.15 points and 769.51 points. Hotels group gained 5.27 points to close at 1,808.55 points. Manufacturing and Processing, and Trading groups remained unchanged at 1,879.84 points and 207.97 points, respectively.
A total of 3.33 million units of shares of 159 companies worth Rs 1.91 billion changed hands this week through 15,612 transactions.
National Life Insurance Company, Arun Finance Company Ltd (Promoter) and Api Power Company Ltd topped the list of companies in terms of turnover (Rs 124.9 million), number of shares traded (279,000) and number of transactions (3,644).
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