Kathmandu, October 20: The Nepal Stock Exchange last week (Oct 7 to 10) has plunged by 11.26 points to close at 1,137.75 points due to the investors’ dilemma vis-à-vis the possible rise in interest rate of the banks suffering crunch in loanable funds.
The secondary market saw a fall in its daily turnover by low as Rs 183 million. Overall, its average daily turnover stood at mere Rs 205.17 million in four trading days of the review period.
The benchmark index that opened at 1,149.01 points fell by 12.05 points on the first-day transaction i.e Monday. On Tuesday, it gained 5.09 points and lost 5.01 points on Wednesday. On Thursday, the market slightly rose by 1 point. Overall, the market shed 0.98 per cent to settle at 1,137.75 points during the review period.
“The local bourse has long been marred by the lack of confidence of large investors towards it. And, the recent onset of the problem of loanable funds in the banks has further hit the already low confidence of such investors,” says Bharat Ranabhat, president of Stockbrokers’ Association of Nepal.
The sensitive index that measures the trading of shares of blue chips companies also shed 2.8 points to close at 249.12 points with the fall in sub-indices of almost all sub-groups including the commercial banks, which holds major place in market capitalisation.
Except hydropower, the sub-indices of the rest of 10 trading groups went down during the review period. Hotels group was the biggest loser as it saw a decline of 51.43 points to close at 1,791.34 points. Similarly, manufacturing, non-life insurance, microfinance and commercial banks saw a loss of double-digit point.
‘Others’, development banks, life-insurance, finance companies and trading witnessed nominal values in their indices. Hydropower was the only gainer with its the sub-index going up by 0.04 points.
