Currency
The partially-convertible Nepali rupee weakened by a nominal 5 paisa against the US dollar over the week, settling at Rs 78.40 per dollar.
Nepal Rastra Bank, the central bank, fixed the dollar’s selling rate at Rs 78.35 on Sunday. The rupee had appreciated against the greenback Tuesday, when a dollar was exchanged at Rs 78.10. However, it continued to weaken in the later days and closed at Rs 78.50 on Friday.
The rupee also weakened against the Euro by Rs 1.39, and closed at Rs 101.41 per Euro (€) this week. It, however, appreciated against Pound Sterling (£) by about Rs 3 and closed at Rs 112.54 per Pound this week. As per the existing open-market exchange rate policy, rates quoted by different banks could differ.
Bullion
Gold gained Rs 60 per gram over the week, and was traded at the record high price of Rs 23, 835 per 10 grams in the local market Friday. Bullion dealers attributed the rise to a sharp increment in the price of yellow metal in the international market.
According to the Nepal Gold-Silver Dealers´ Association, the local market had opened at Rs 23,235 per 10 grams on Sunday. It dropped to 23,150 per 10 grams on Tuesday, but gained Rs 170 per 10 grams overnight and was traded at Rs 23,320 on Wednesday. The prices continued to soar in the next two days, before the market closed Friday at record high prices.
Likewise, the price of silver went up to 343 per 10 grams from 328 this week.
Since Nepal fulfills its domestic bullion demand from the international market, any fluctuation in the prices in the global market is reflected in the domestic prices.
NEPSE
Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index dropped 0.22 points over the week and close at 671.49 on Thursday as investors continued to exhibit low confidence in the country’s sole secondary market.
According to NEPSE records, 381,381 shares of 79 companies changed hands over the five effective trading days this week. The trading totaled to Rs 228.78 million. Transactions last week had totaled Rs 273.08 million.
Among the major transactions, shares of category ‘A’ companies totaled Rs 117.30 million. It was 51.31 percent of the total transactions recorded for the week.
As per a NEPSE statement, the index for commercial banks gained 7.86 points and closed at 649.62 points. The index for hydropower group also soared by over 28 points during the week.
While index for manufacturing group remained unchanged, groups including the development bank, finance, insurance, hotels and trading among others witnessed a substantial decline in their respective indices.
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