The benchmark index took a plunge as the investors hurried to book profit to gather cash required for interest payment before the stock price take a deeper dip. Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse)’s index slumped by 14.54 points today, resting at 768.54 points by the time the market closed. “Investors have taken to liquidating the shares to arrange for funds to pay interest and principal for the loans obtained with shares as collateral,” pointed out Narendra Raj Sijapati, president of Stock Brokers Association of Nepal (SBAN). As soon as the market opened at 783.08 points on Monday, the sell orders started flowing in, which depressed the stock prices. “Since most of the regular investors have made quite a profit due to surge of the index last month, they are hastily booking profit before the prices fall further. Besides, selling always goes up during the last month of each quarter,” he added. Today, 537,725 unit shares worth Rs 217.3 million were traded in 1,854 transactions. “Despite the selling pressure, trading volume remained small. So, we can presume that the slide won’t last long,” said Sijapati, adding that before closing, brokers witnessed more orders to buy. As most of the scrip traded today ended up in red, all of subgroups’ indices slumped. The biggest loser of the day was insurance subgroup, followed by hotels and hydropower companies. Insurance heavyweights such as LIC Nepal, Nepal Life Insurance and National Life Insurance recorded losses of Rs 50, Rs 93 and Rs 124, respectively. Soaltee Hotel lost Rs 16, while share prices of Oriental Hotel and Taragaon Regency Hotel took plunge of Rs 21 and Rs eight. Banks also did not fare well in today’s selling pressure. The shares of Nabil Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, NIC Asia Bank plunged by Rs 52, Rs 45 and Rs 20, respectively. The market capitalisation of the stock exchange for the day stood at Rs 782.65 billion — a one per cent fall in comparison to last trading day’s closing. Source: THT
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 06:46:28 +0000
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