KATHMANDU, Jan 17: After witnessing a firmly upbeat trading week, stocks stretched its advance to Sunday’s trading. While the first few minutes of trading was highly volatile, stocks saw stability after mid-day. The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index climbed around 25 points in the afternoon before retracing slightly. Further advance in the latter trading hours saw the index close with a 28.46 point’s gain at 2,315.01.
Consequently, the local bourse ended in green for seven consecutive day where the benchmark added almost 150 points in total. The equity market has continued to see decent advance driven by high liquidity in the economy and low interest rates in the banking industry. Turnover also rose on the day with over Rs. 6.37 billion worth of shares being traded.
Trading sector led the broader market. The group’s sub-index shot up by 9.24%. Development Bank, ‘Others’ and Microfinance stocks also saw strength with the respective averages rallying 4.61%, 3.40% and 3.19%. Finance and Life Insurance segments also saw notable buying pressure. All other composite sectors ended in green, barring hydropower segment, which inched marginally towards red.
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Shares of Nepal Telecom Ltd were traded the most with a whopping turnover of Rs. 581 million. NIC Asia Bank Ltd, Civil Bank Ltd and Nepal Reinsurance Company Ltd’s shares were also actively traded with transactions of Rs. 229 million, Rs. 210 million and Rs. 187 million. Neco Insurance Co. Ltd, Nepal Bangladesh Bank Ltd and Prabhu Bank Ltd were among other heavily traded stocks.
Salt Trading Corporation led the day’s gain and jumped exactly 10%. Gurans Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd, Narayani Development Bank Ltd, Corporate Development Bank Ltd, Samudayik Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd, Prabhu Life Insurance Ltd and Kisan Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd also remained locked in the upper circuit limit of positive 10%.
United Finance Ltd, on the other, corrected sharply after continuous rally. The finance stock tanked 5.71%. Mirmire Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd’s shares also came under pressure and fell 3.11%. Nepal SBI Bank Ltd, meanwhile, dropped 2.79%. Rasuwagadhi Hydropower Ltd, Sanjen Jalavidhyut Company Ltd and Shiva Shree Hydropower Ltd registered losses of over 2% each.
On the ARKS technical front, the Nepse index formed a bullish candlestick with the index marking a new high above 2,300 level. Technical indicators also suggest that the momentum will likely push the equity market further. With the index making higher tops and higher bottoms in intraday level, short-term trend also point towards possibility of upward movement. Some correction can be expected in the coming sessions, but a strong support now can be taken as 2,200mark.
This column is produced by ARKS Capital Advisors Ltd.
(Views expressed in the article are those of the producer and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication)
www.arkscapitaladvisors.com
