Currency
Nepali currency appreciated by 21 paisa against a US dollar, rendering imports cheaper but slashing income earnings of exporters and remittance receivers over this week. A dollar was exchanged at Rs 77.19 on Friday.
Nepal Rastra Bank had fixed the exchange rate of a dollar at Rs 77.40 on Sunday. As demand for dollar went down in India, rupee gained 10 paisa on Monday and further appreciated by 14 paisa on Wednesday. Exchange rate of a dollar went up by five paisa on Thursday, but again slipped by 2 paisa to close at Rs 77.19 on Friday.
Rupee weakened against euro by 22 paisa, but gained 9 paisa against a pound sterling during the period. On Friday, a euro was exchanged at Rs 113.96, while pound sterling was valued at Rs 126.44.
Bullion
Gold price went up by Rs 16.50 per 10 grams in the domestic market over this week. Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers´ Association that tagged the gold price at Rs 25,465 per 10 grams on Friday cited rise in the price in the international market for the rise in the local market.
According to the association, domestic bullion market opened on Sunday with gold price at Rs 25,300 per 10 grams. Amid currency gain, its price dropped by Rs 90 on Monday.
But as the international prices rallied, gold price caught upward trend, making it dearer (Rs 25,375 per 10 grams) on Tuesday and Wednesday (Rs 25,465). Despite the association´s claim of prices remaining unchanged on Friday, a public holiday, dealers informed Republica that they were selling yellow metal on Friday at a cheaper price by Rs 300 than the Thursday´s price.
The price of silver, however, dropped this week and closed at Rs 433 per 10 grams on Friday.
Nepse
Although cash crunch in the market dragged down the volume of turnover at Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index recorded a gain of 1.65 points over this week. The market closed at 662.04 points on Thursday.
Nepse attributed the rise in index to better performances by commercial banks that occupy a lions share in the stock market. ´Commercial bank´ group recorded a rise in their index by 1.33 points during the week. The transaction volume however went down by 43 percent during the period as compared with last week´s volume.
Some 354,800 units of shares worth Rs 250.4 million were traded during the week. Of that amount, turnover of category A companies alone was Rs 151.30 million, which was over 60 percent of the total transaction.
As per the weekly Nepse statement, indices of development bank, hydropower, insurance and others groups went up, whereas the indices of financial and trading groups dropped during the period. No change was recorded in the indices of the manufacturing and hotels groups.
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