KATHMANDU: The news of the appointment of deputy governors at Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) after two months fuelled investor optimism today as the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index rose 6.26 points or 0.49 per cent to record a fresh all-time high of 1,295.78 points. While the trading subgroup held steady at 201.38 points, manufacturing and hotels were the only two subgroups to land in the red today.
Today’s market rally was led by the finance subgroup, as the sub-index surged by 2.61 per cent to 676.67 points. Pokhara Finance rose by Rs 31 to Rs 350, Citizen Investment Trust by Rs 25 to Rs 3,725 and Janaki Finance by Rs 16 to Rs 345, among others.
Development banks gained 1.34 per cent to 1,325.83 points. Swarojgar went up by Rs 85 to Rs 2,425, Rural Microfinance Development Centre by Rs 82 to Rs 1,000 and Summit by Rs 40 to Rs 2,490.
Insurance advanced 0.75 per cent to 5,536.04 points; hydropower was up 0.74 per cent to 2,226.74 points; others rose 0.43 per cent to 828.24 points and banking went up 0.13 per cent to 1,185.71 points. Conversely, manufacturing subgroup dropped 1.03 per cent to 1,998.78 points — weighed down by Unilever Nepal’s share value plunging by Rs 400 to Rs 28,500.
Even as Oriental rose by eight rupees to Rs 413, Soaltee’s stock price dipped by three rupees to Rs 318 and Taragaon Regency lost five rupees to Rs 209. This in turn dragged the sub-index of hotels down 0.63 per cent to 1,692.20 points.
Altogether 1.05 million shares of 126 listed companies worth Rs 603.70 million were traded through 3,231 transactions today. The sensitive index, which gauges the performance of class ‘A’ stocks, rose 0.39 per cent to 279.79 points. Similarly, the float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded also went up 0.57 per cent to 93.27 points.
