Nepse drops below 1,900 points – The Himalayan Times – Nepal’s No.1 English Daily Newspaper

Kathmandu, April 29

The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index fell 14.67 points or 0.77 percent in the trading week between April 23 and 27 to fall back below the 1,900-point threshold.

While the apex court has given the go-ahead to the Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) for the distribution of licenses related to the opening of a new stock exchange, commodities exchange and new stock brokers as long requested by stakeholders, several factors affecting this implementation nullifying, including Tighter policies from the Nepal Rastra Bank have hampered growth, market analysts say.

According to Chotte Lal Rauniyar, immediate former president of Nepal Investors Forum, the new exchange and increase in the number of brokers are expected to further develop the market through good competition and the use of digital technology along with the introduction of intraday trading, auction market and short selling among other facilities, the allegation of MPs in parliament against the lawsuit has further tarnished investor sentiment, despite the Supreme Court ruling in favor of SEBON.

“In addition, although the banks have cut the base rate, the interest rates have remained unchanged. Also, the risk-weighted average remains at 150 percent and the limit of Rs 120 million on loans for shares has not changed, which has remained fundamental.” keep investors away. We hope that the upcoming monetary policy will address these issues and introduce policies in favor of and for the development of the capital market,” he shared.

The sensitive index, which measures the performance of class “A” stocks, fell 0.56 percent, or 2.03 points, to 361.09 points during the reporting period. The float index, which measures the performance of shares actually traded, also fell 0.77 percent to 132.36 points.

A total of 12.44 million shares were traded through 137,674 trades amounting to Rs 4.05 billion during the assessment week. Weekly turnover was down 12.30 percent compared to the previous trading week, when 14.96 million shares had changed hands through 131,789 trades totaling Rs 4.62 billion.

The average turnover in the review week was Rs 810 million, compared to the average turnover of Rs 924 million in the previous week.

The reference index opened on Sunday at 1,904.40 points and fell by 18.80 points to 1,885.60 points at the close. The market gained 2.72 points on Monday to 1,888.32 points and added 17.36 points on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the benchmark lost 13.68 points, before falling again by 2.27 points on Thursday, settling at 1,889.73 for the trading week.

Aside from hotels and tourism, mutual funds and development banks, all subgroups came into the red in the assessment week.

Finance led the pack of losers after falling 1.71 percent to 1,577.82 points. Similarly, microfinance fell 1.47 percent to 3,362.45 points; hydropower fell 1.43 percent to 2,430.22 points; trading fell 0.99 percent to 2,105.04 points; investments lost 0.96 percent to 63.01 points; banking fell 0.75 percent to 1,2,36,56 points; life insurance fell 0.52 percent to 9,427.36 points; others fell 0.43 percent to 1,399.21 points; non-life insurance declined 0.18 percent to 8,589.92 points; and manufacturing and processing fell 0.02 percent to 4,352.51 points.

Meanwhile, the hotels and tourism subgroup rose 0.84 percent to 3,572.94 points; mutual funds rose by 0.59 percent to 13.57 points and development banks by 0.12 percent to 3,463.70 points.

A version of this article will appear in the April 30, 2023 print of The Himalayan Times.