Nepse posts 61-points weekly gain

KATHMANDU : The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index opened trading on Monday where it gain 17.2 points. Similarly, the local stock market continued to saw considerable strength on Tuesday followed by a gain of 23.23 points. The stock market remained closed on Wednesday due to Nepalese New Year. The index extended gains on Thursday with another 20.61 point rise. Overall, the benchmark index added 61.04 points or 2.28% to end the review period at 2,735.40.

Investors seemed optimistic and confidence with the start of New Year as buying pressure continues to dominant the equity market. Mostly the banking stocks leads the turnover list on this week. Likewise, the bourse continued to turn in strong sessions. Despite trading only for 3 days in this week, the total weekly turnover managed to stand at Rs. 23.39 billion.

Sensitive Index, which measures the performance of Class ‘A’ stocks, outperformed the broader market. It registered a gain of 3.34%. In terms of sectoral performance, most of the sub-indices closed the week higher, except Hotels and Tourism, Trading, Other and Hydropower registered losses of 3.15%, 2.77%, 1.63% and 0.76% respectively. Development Bank, banking, Microfinance and Finance stocks followed suit with gains of 8.12%, 4.57%, 3.48% and 2.4% in the respective sub index. Sub-indices of Life Insurance and Mutual Fund sectors climbed over 1% each. Investment, Manufacturing & Processing and Non-Life Insurance sub-index also ended the week on positive note.

On Friday, Lumbini General Insurance Ltd announced 5% bonus shares and 5% cash dividend for the year 19/20 to its shareholders. However, the dividend will be distributed only after approval from Beema Samiti and endorsement by the company’s upcoming Annual General Meeting (AGM).

Among quarterly report, First Microfinance Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd has published its third quarterly report for the fiscal year 2077/78 with a 12.94% growth in the net profit

In terms of ARKS technical analysis, the market formed a strong bullish candlestick on the daily timeframe which reflects bulls still persist at the present context.In weekly chart, technical indicators like Relative Strength Index has reached at overbought zone but Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) still shows the up side movement. While some consolidation or correction in the coming weeks can be expected, the overall uptrend in the stock market has remained intact.