The surge in stock prices of hydropower companies saved the Nepse index from ending up in the red despite a less than inspiring performance of the rest of the companies this week –– August 5 to 8. The benchmark index at Nepse recorded a marginal gain of 0.26 points, still bobbing over 400 points at 402.
The possibility of Chilime Hydropower Company distributing about 100 per cent dividend pushed up the share prices and transaction of the hydro company this week. Its share prices shot to Rs 1095 on the last day’s closing from Rs 997 of the opening price, making it the forerunner in terms of trading volume and transaction with trading of shares worth Rs 71.7 million in 707 transactions.
Last week, shares worth Rs 34.5 million of Chilime Hydropower were traded at Nepse. Along with Chilime Hydropower, Arun Valley and Butwal Power Company gained Rs 10 and Rs 21, respectively, on the week’s trading pushing the hydropower subgroup up by a whopping 56.96 points.
The manufacturing subgroup went up by 10.89 points as Unilever Nepal gained Rs 210 per unit share. Likewise, others subgroup gained 5.88 points due to Nepal Telecom’s gain of Rs five per unit share. Insurance also gained a measly 0.23 points.
However commercial banks, development banks and finance companies ended up in red by losing 3.48 points, 3.41 points and 1.09 points, respectively. Hotels also lost 3.66 points with Soaltee Hotel and Oriental Hotels facing losses.
The market that opened at 402.21 points on Sunday afternoon closed at 402.94 points by the end of the day. The index climbed to 404.15 points by Tuesday, but on the last trading day of the week, the benchmark index slipped back to 402.47 points.
The stock exchange witnessed trading worth Rs 273 million of more than 935,685 unit shares belonging to 112 companies in 5599 transactions, which is a 39 per cent increment as compared to the last week.
Of the total transaction, blue chip stocks worth Rs 198 million were traded making the trading of class ‘A’ companies amount to 72.46 per cent of the total transaction. The sensitive index that measures the performance of blue chip stocks also went up a little by 0.11 points. However, the indicator of the performance of actual shares traded –– float index –– declined by 0.17 points to 31.05 points. Kist Bank topped in the number of shares traded with 284,380 unit shares being traded.
The top five performers of the week were Chilime Hydropower (Rs 71.74 million), Kist Bank (Rs 34.24 million), Everest Bank (Rs 22.64 million), Bank of Kathmandu (Rs 18.88 million) and Grand Bank (Rs 9.81 million).
Source : The Himalayan Times
