Kathmandu: After falling by more than 100 points in the first two trading days following Dashain, the stock market showed signs of recovery on Thursday, the last trading day of the week.
Based on recommendations from the Capital Market Reform Task Force formed by Finance Minister Rameshore Khanal, the Nepal Rastra Bank on Wednesday removed the ceiling on margin loans against shares and also allowed greater flexibility for banks to engage in share trading.
As a result, the market opened strongly on Thursday, hitting a positive circuit breaker within just three minutes after rising by 4 percent. However, by the market’s close, the NEPSE index had gained only 22 points.
On Thursday, the NEPSE index rose by 22.59 points to close at 2,582.18. The previous day, Wednesday, the market had suffered a steep fall of 45.36 points, ending at 2,559.59.
Although the index increased on Thursday, total trading volume decreased. Compared to Wednesday’s transaction volume of over Rs 5.5 billion, Thursday’s total turnover stood at Rs 5.27 billion.
Among Thursday’s active stocks, Bindhyabasini Hydropower Development Company gained the most, rising by 8.21 percent, followed by Asian Hydropower up by 5.5 percent and MBL Equity Fund units up by around 5 percent.
In contrast, Three Star Hydropower fell by 9.09 percent and Bungal Energy declined by 5.43 percent.
While the Trading sub-index dropped by 1.48 percent, all other sectoral indices posted gains. Shivam Cement led in trading volume with shares worth Rs 273.4 million changing hands, followed closely by Union Hydropower with Rs 271.2 million in transactions.
Out of 251 listed companies that traded on Thursday, 200 companies saw their share prices rise, 41 declined, and 10 remained unchanged.
Comment Here