WEEKLY SHARE UPDATESPIRITUAL JOURNEY: Insurance companies push Nepse index up Kathmandu, February 17: With an unprecedented growth in share prices of insurance companies, the stock market continued on growth path this week and the index of Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) posted an increment of 2.67 points. The weekly trading report shows that Nepse index rose to finish off at 529.97 points on Thursday, up from 524.30 points of Sunday. The index had gained 3.34 points last week too. The share trading at the country’s sole secondary market began on Sunday with its index at 524.30 points, but dropped on the second day to 523.94 points. However, it recovered and maintained a steady growth at 525.08 points, 525.86 points and 526.97 points on the third, fourth and fifth day, respectively. The total turnover also increased this week in comparison to last week and stood at Rs 162.20 million with 308,438 unit shares having been traded through 2968 transactions. Out of the total 77 listed companies for the share trading, 70 companies saw their transactions this week. Group-wise share trading data shows that the insurance group saw a huge growth of 49.65 points — one of the biggest growth attained by a single group in intra-week trading — and led the overall share market to a comfortable growth. The Nepse index of the group closed at 578.75 points from the opening 529.10 points. The finance group continued with a rise in its share prices, as its index jumped by 10.51 points. Its index closed at 443.82 points, up from 433.31 points on Sunday. The group had registered a growth of over 22 points last week, too. The index of others group rose steadily by 1.66 points to 662.61 points from 660.95 points. The manufacturing group’s index increased to 322.48 points, up from 322.43 points. On the other hand, the leading scrip at the Nepse, commercial banks group suffered a loss of 1.18 points, as its index dropped to 577.02 points from the opening 578.20 points. Likewise, the development banks group also suffered a loss of 1.28 points. Trading group did not see any changes as its shares were not transacted this week. Its index froze at 148.51 points. Similarly, the index of the hotel group also remained unchanged at 201.29 points throughout the week. The commercial banks group continued its domination by capturing the largest share in the total trading. The group cornered 70.42 per cent of the total trading. The finance group came second with 10.01 per cent and development banks group had 9.39 per cent share in total trading. The insurance group had a 4.68 per cent share, while the manufacturing group had a mere 0.04 per cent share in the total trading. Kumari Bank Ltd topped in turnover and number of shares traded for the week. Its 52,907 unit shares were traded at Rs 43.27 million. However, Sanima Bittiya Bikash Sanstha surpassed others in the number of transactions with 831 transactions. The Nepse floor remained open for five days under a regular lot, where the shares of Nabil Bank, Himalayan Bank, Nepal SBI Bank, Everest Bank, Bank of Kathmandu, NIC Bank, Machhapuchhre Bank, Kumari Bank, Lumbini Bank, Siddhartha Bank, NCC Bank, Laxmi Bank, Chilime Hydropower Company, NIDC Capital Markets, Life Insurance, United Finance, Nepal Merchant Banking and Finance, Sanima Bikash Bittiya Sanstha and Butwal Finance were traded.