Kathmandu, March 21
Due to fears that the coronavirus or COVID-19 is going to hit the country’s economy severely, Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index dropped by 7.81 per cent or 107.53 points in volatile trading between March 15 and 19 and edged closer to the psychological threshold of 1,250 points.
“The fear that the virus is going to have a severe impact on the economy has tremendously hit investor sentiment because of which the market has witnessed a significant drop,” said Uttam Aryal, chairperson of Investors Association of Nepal.
Photo: Nepse
He further added that the market is about to be closed for at least a week from Sunday and the shutdown might be extended. “And investors fear that when the market does open, share prices are going to plummet, hence there was panic selling in the last few days.”
Against this backdrop, the weekly turnover increased by 50.23 per cent as compared to the previous week to Rs 8.27 billion. In the previous week, the market had witnessed transactions worth Rs 5.50 billion.
The trading volume also rose to 22.71 million stocks changing hands this week from 14.05 million last week.
However, in the previous week, the secondary market had remained closed on Sunday and Monday due to Women’s Day and Holi festival and was open for only three days. Therefore, even as the weekly traded amount rose significantly in the review period, the average daily turnover fell to Rs 1.65 billion from Rs 1.83 billion in the preceding week.
The secondary market had opened on Sunday with benchmark index at 1,377.18 points. It had plummeted by 64.14 points by the end of the first trading day. The market went up by 3.35 points on Monday but again dropped by 44.33 points on Tuesday. The local bourse again dipped by 16.26 points on Wednesday. However, it ascended by 13.50 points on Thursday to close the week at 1,269.30 points.
In the review week, all the sub-indices landed in the red zone.
The life insurance subgroup was the biggest loser of the week, falling by 12.61 per cent or 996.14 points to 6,901.19 points due to share price of Nepal Life Insurance Co dropping by Rs 128 to Rs 1,059 and Life Insurance Co Nepal down by Rs 220 to Rs 1,180.
Similarly, non-life insurance slumped by 12.26 per cent or 736.65 points to 5,270.49 points as share price of Himalayan General went down by Rs 65 to Rs 335 and that of Neco Insurance by Rs 86 to Rs 486.
Manufacturing also plunged by 9.94 per cent or 274.70 points to 2,488.62 points due to share price of Himalayan Distillery falling by Rs 212 to Rs 1,304 and Bottlers Nepal (Tarai) going down by Rs 85 to Rs 6,598.
The hotels sub-index contracted by 8.38 per cent or 138.19 points to 1,510.47 points. Share price of Soaltee Hotel was down by nine rupees
Read the full story on The Himalayan Times
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