End of Maoist protest buoyed stocks uphill

The local bourse that takes a trip of peak and trough for series of previous sessions has ended at green side again. After continuous five session uphill due to bottom fishing strategy, Nepse's optimistic press release, slightly loose margin lending policy by NRB and government's assurance to work in favor of stock market, Nepse slump down hefty in previous week discounting those noteworthy positive signals by UCPN-Maoist's fresh protest including SinhaDurbar Gherao and worry on floating of promoters shares in the market.

Amid the volatility and uncertainty, the secondary market has rebounds from aggressive red terrain to slight green side on Sunday led by banking and financial stocks. The end of second phase of Maoist's protest for a week has buoyed the investors' sentiments to demand for stock that were relatively cheaper on previous session due to anxious and turbulent environment. Consequently, at the closing bell the benchmark Nepse index added diminutive of 1.08 points or 0.19 percent to 566.94 in a volatile session though with low turnover and thinner units after plunging to low of 564 points.

"After the end of Maoist protest stock market ticked to higher note, this shows that investors are much more attentive to the political scenario of the nation amid other fundamentals" said Pritam Adhikari, who is currently employed in Investment Company of Nepal.

The three hour session trade in secondary market has brought cheers at investors' outlook who holds banking and finance scrip. Commercial bank index heaved up 4.63 points or 0.86 percent to 544.73 led by 8.32 percent surge in scrip price of Laxmi Bank (Rs. 612, +Rs. 47), 4.50 percent rise in share price of Machhapuchchhre Bank (Rs. 348, +Rs. 15) along with other key commercial banks, while finance added 3.41 points or 0.57 percent to 601.54 led by 7.77 percent rise in price of General Finance (Rs. 222, +Rs. 16).

Likewise, hydro sector rose 2.03 points or 0.25 percent, hotel was up 1.14 points and insurance settled unchanged. However, it seems that the shareholders of development bank (-1.94, -0.31%) and others (-10.57, -1.71%) have to wait for another session for a positive note in these sectors.

The uptick in demand of key commercial bank and finance companies led domestic blue chip or sensitive index to close at 141.95 adding 1.25 points or 0.89 percent. 14 commercial banks, 37 finance companies, 15 development bank, 10 insurance companies and one each from hydropower and manufacturing companies are included in sensitive index. Similarly, float Index an indicator of performance of ordinary shares in the market was up 0.29 points to 54.20.

Merely 59 companies registered their presence in the secondary market with 27 gainers and 22 losers. The A-D ratio was maintained at 1.23. All in all 85924 shares traded today via 1077 transactions. Moreover, Rs. 40295008 turnover was realized along with Rs.414856.82 million market capitalizations.

The top five standouts of the day are LBL(8.32%), GFL( 7.77%), MBL( 4.5%), STFL( 4.37%), NHPC(3.95%). Whereas, IDBL(-5.68%), ABBL( -5.43%), MFCL( -3.64%), HBL( -1.92%), DCBL( -1.91%). comprised of the top five losers.