Kathmandu, December 29: As a result of the investors rushing to buy especially the stocks available at low prices, the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) benchmark last week (Dec 22 to 26) benchmark gained 17.77 points to close at 1,167.41 points. Such a rush was mainly gravitated towards the shares of insurance companies.
The market that opened at 1,149.64 points inched up 1.17 points on Sunday. It again saw the double-digit gain of 17.76 points on Monday but shed 2.36 points on Tuesday. On the two successive days-Wednesday and Thursday-the benchmark index alternated between minor gain and loss.
The sensitive index that measures the trading of shares of blue chips companies also went up 7.70 points to close at 254.36 points
Barring aside the Hydropower and Mutual Fund sectors, all other sectors were in the green in terms of stock transactions during the review period. Manufacturing & Processing sector rose by almost 8% as Shivam Cements Ltd staged a notable recovery after tumbling to around Rs. 350 per share. The sub-index of Trading also surged by 7.1% backed by a sustained rally in shares of Salt Trading Corporation which hit its fresh high on Thursday.
The ‘Others’ sub-index shot up by 6.14%, while Life Insurance and Hotels sub-indices registered an increment of over 3% each.
When it comes to posting the highest turnover from share transactions, Nepal Bank Limited topped the list. More than Rs 329 million worth of the bank’s shares were transacted during the review period. Shivam Cements Ltd, Citizen Investment Trust, Nabil Bank, and NMB banks were other four top gainers of the last week with the turnovers of Rs 259.21 million, Rs 147.91 million, Rs 109.04 million and Rs 107.11 million respectively.
With a rise in share prices of the majority of the sub-groups including the commercial banks, the market capitalization inclined to Rs 1,482.94 billion from Rs 1,460.36 billion, adding Rs 22.58 billion in the book value of the investment portfolio.
