In a bid to give a new boost to the capital market, investors and the government on Thursday had signed a nine-point pact that, among others, includes a provision for introduction of margin lending through stock brokers upon the deposit of share purchase receipts. [break]
Trading had to be halted for three times on the day. Circuit breaker was imposed, halting trading for 15 minutes, when the index gained by more than 3 percent in the first hour of trading. Similarly, trading was suspended for another 30 minutes after the index inched by over 4 percent at around 2 p.m. The third circuit breaker was clamped after the benchmark index gained by more than 5 percent, resulting in trading suspension for remaining sessions of the day.
“We saw positive impacts of the nine-point agreement during the day´s trading as investors were more optimistic toward short term market improvement. However, the momentum won´t continue in the next trading sessions given the lack of other stimulus programs,” said Anjan Raj Poudel, president of Stock Brokers Association Nepal. He claimed that Nepse index would hover around 400 points for the few trading days.
During Sunday´s trading, all trading groups, except the Development Bank sub-index that suffered marginal loss of 0.51 points, posted gains. Banking and Hotel groups saw their sub-indices grow by 17.87 points and 5.61 points to close at 363.51 points and 508.65 points respectively.
Similarly, Hydropower and Finance sectors also gained by 40.63 points and 0.23 points to settle at 623.4 points and 270.83 points respectively. The sub-indices of Insurance and Others groups went up by 3.53 points and 43.46 points to close the day´s trading at 493.29 points and 573.36 points respectively.
Securities worth Rs 82.16 million were traded through 1,126 transactions on Sunday. Total market capitalization touched Rs 369.22 billion.
Stocks end week with gains stretching May rebound