The benchmark index, which opened at 488.98 points on Sunday, scaled to 497.67 points by Thursday, the last trading day of the week, as the banking index rose 16.65 points, or 3.66 percent, over the week.[break]
Although the index had initially veered downward, showing signs of a dull week for investors, it started picking up from Tuesday on hopes of formation of a national consensus government. This led the index to rise 8.43 points to 490.36 points on Tuesday. Wednesday turned out to be an even better day for investors as the index added another 9.41 points to close at 499.77 points.
Wednesday´s gains came on the back of positive political development, particularly appointment of Nepali Congress leader Sushil Koirala as the prime ministerial candidate to lead a national consensus government.
But this exuberance dissipated the next day as the ruling party placed conditions on formation of a new government, withering hopes of improvement in the political situation of the country, which has destabilized since the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly on May 27. This led the benchmark index to dip 2.1 points to end the week at 497.67 points.
Stock brokers told Republica that the stock market got a lift this week as most of the indices, except development bank and trade, rose. But above all, hike in share prices of banks, which make up 50 percent of the market capitalization, lifted the benchmark index up.
Nepse´s website shows that all leading commercial banks like Standard Chartered, Nabil, Everest, Nepal Investment and Himalayan posted gains over the week.
Standard Chartered Bank Nepal, for instance, added Rs 70 to its share value to end the week at Rs 1,980. Shares of Nabil Bank also rose 2.6 percent to close at 1,498, while stocks of Everest Bank ended at Rs 1231, up Rs 25. Two other leading banks, Himalayan and Nepal Investment also gained Rs 18 each to end the week at Rs 869 and Rs 847, respectively.
As investors were upbeat about bank stocks during the week, the weekly list of top five companies, in terms of share transaction, was dominated by them, with Nepal Investment Bank leading the pack.
The market witnessed total share transaction of Rs 515.28 million during the week, up 3.87 percent from that of last week.
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