Nepse takes historic dip

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

KATHMANDU: The secondary market index plunged to the 55-month lowest to 389.91 points today, in the last trading day of the week.

The overall political situation had not helped at all in salvaging the capital market from the current bearish trend. Also, the oversupply of the shares in the secondary market has contributed in pushing the index further down.

Others subgroup that has Nepal Telecom (NT) has pulled the Nepse down as it plunged by a whopping 8.23 points in the day’s trading as NT lost Rs 7 on the single unit of its share. Chilime Hydropower pulled the hydropower subgroup down as it losing Rs 20 in a single unit of its share. The hydropower subgroup lost 6.44 points. Similarly, Standard Chartered Bank Nepal’s gain of Rs 33 in a single unit of its share could not rescue the banks subgroup that plunged by 2.27 points.

“Nepse index has plunged below the psychological 400 points following the publication of less than favourable financial reports of the banks and financial institutions in the second quarter, two weeks ago,” according to president of Brokers Association of Nepal Nanda Kishor Mundada.

Today along with Nepse index, sensitive index that measures the ‘A’ listed companies’ trade also dropped by 0.73 points while float index also ended in red zone by losing 0.23 points.

The secondary market index had gone below 400 points on December 9, 2010 since then the index has been hovering around 400 points. In the first week of January also, the index had gone below 400 points after a week long recovery from the slump.

Since December, the market has dipped to as low as 390 points and have surged to as high as 413 points, else been bouncing between 400 points and 410 points.

“Moreover, the banks are also paying attractive interest to the depositors which is equivalent to the returns being yielded by shares in the stock market at present, Mundada said, adding that the investors are finding the fixed deposits more lucrative.