KATHMANDU, March 3: The stock market saw weakness since the beginning of Wednesday’s trading. The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index pulled back sharply lower within the half an hour of trading. Nonetheless, the benchmark tried to recover its losses, but failed and continued to remain in the negative bias with a decline of 64 points on mid-day. At the close, Nepse registered a loss of 39.23 points to end the trading session at 2416.01.
Nonetheless, the total turnover witnessed slight improvement of 2.21% compared to the previous day. Over Rs. 6.254 billion worth of securities were traded in the day.
Barring Trading and Hotel and Tourism sectors, all segments ended in red. The group sub-indices jumped 9.26% and 1.65% respectively. Whereas Others, Life Insurance and Mutual fund sub-index fell 4.23% 2.69% and 2.36% correspondingly. Sub-indices of Development Bank, Hydropower, Finance, Non-Life Insurance, Manufacturing & Processing, Microfinance and Mutual Fund decline above 1% each. Likewise, the banking index dropped 0.98% on the day.
Nepse recoups intraday losses but close 21 points lower
Shares of Nepal Doorsanchar Company Ltd were traded the most. Over Rs. 299 million worth of the shares changed hands. Company has also proposed a 40% cash dividend to its shareholders for the fiscal year 2076/77. Subsequently, Asian Life Insurance Company Ltd, Nepal Life Insurance company Ltd, Shikhar Insurance Company Ltd and Neco Insurance Company Ltd posted turnovers of Rs. 280 million, Rs. 266 million, Rs. 242 million and Rs. 223 million respectively.Nepal Infrastructure Bank Ltd, NIC Asia Bank Ltd, Nabil Bank Ltd and Global IME Bank Ltd were among other heavily traded scrips of the day.
Shares of Salt Trading Corporation and Chandragiri Hills Ltd locked into the upper circuit limit of 10%. It was followed by Himalayan Power Partner Ltd and National Hydropower Company Ltd also shot by 8.16% and 4.93% correspondingly. Likewise, Himalaya Urja Bikas Company Ltd, Arun Valley Hydropower Development Co. Ltd, Ghalemdi Hydro Ltd and Synergy Power Development Ltd were among the major gainers for the day.
On the other hand, Asian Life Insurance Co. Ltd and Barun Hydropower Co. Ltd came under pressure and dropped 6.36% and 6.06% correspondingly. Likewise, Nepal Doorsanchar Company Ltd and Suryodaya Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd also traded 5% lower apiece. Narayani Development Bank Ltd, Support Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha Ltd, Green development Bank Ltd and Ganapati Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha Ltd fell 4% each.
As per the ARKS technical analysis, the index formed an inverted hammer candlestick on the day which indicates the buying momentum prevailing in the market. Nonetheless, the immediate support lies at 2,360 points at the current moment while immediate resistance lies at 2,600 psychological marks.
This column is produced by ARKS Capital Advisors Ltd.
(Views expressed in the article are those of the producer and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication)
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