Kathmandu, December 10

After rebounding 4.33 per cent in the previous week, domestic share market resumed downtrend in the trading week of December 4 to 8, with weekly transaction dropping by a whopping 43.63 per cent compared to the previous week.

Opening at 1,600.49 points on Sunday, the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index had fallen by 29.54 points by the day’s closing to retreat below the threshold of 1,600 points. Continuing southbound, the local bourse dropped by 26.35 points on Monday.

On Tuesday, the benchmark index edged up by 9.91 points. However, over the next two days, Nepse reversed course again, shedding 0.61 points on Wednesday and down 9.22 points on Thursday, recording a week-on-week drop of 55.81 points or 3.49 per cent to settle at 1,544.68 points.

Altogether almost 4.30 million shares of 154 companies worth Rs 3.29 billion were traded through 23,321 transactions during the week.

For comparison, 37,436 transactions of 7.46 million scrips of 152 firms that amounted to Rs 5.83 billion had been undertaken in the previous week.

The sensitive index, which gauges the performance of class ‘A’ stocks, fell by 12.01 points or 3.47 per cent to 334.43 points. Similarly, the float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded also dipped by 4.43 points or 3.71 per cent to 115.08 points.

Apart from trading, which remained stationary at 203.91 points, hotels and manufacturing were the only two subgroups to land in the green zone.

Hotels recouped some of the loss of the previous week by edging up 20.08 points or 1.04 per cent to 1,941.66 points. Even as Soaltee’s share value went up by 2.28 per cent to Rs 358, the gain was capped by Oriental down three per cent to Rs 485 and Taragaon falling 2.23 per cent to Rs 219.

Manufacturing also inched up by 19.89 points or 0.90 per cent to 2,218.09 points on the back of Bottlers Nepal (Tarai) rising by 1.99 per cent to Rs 4,090.

On the other hand, insurance saw the past week’s gain of 2.79 per cent wiped out as the sub-index plunged by 336.7 points or 4.37 per cent to 7,365.63 points. Share price of Rastriya Beema Company took a dive of 4.76 per cent to Rs 12,000, National Life went down by 2.83 per cent to Rs 2,235, among others.

Hydropower slumped by 78.92 points or 3.93 per cent to 1,927.98 points. Chilime retreated by 3.77 per cent to Rs 1,022 and Sanima Mai dropped by 3.44 per cent to Rs 840.

Trailing close behind, development banks descended by 62.94 points or 3.81 per cent to 1,587.48 points. Nagbeli’s trading resumed in the week after being suspended on November 20 and its stocks took a massive hammering as its share price sunk by 45.82 per cent to Rs 2,660. Swabhalamban was down 5.26 per cent to Rs 1,800

Banking lost 55.31 points or 3.61 per cent to 1,475.42 points. Standard Chartered plummeted by 29.05 per cent to Rs 2,100, Nabil was down 2.63 per cent to Rs 1,630.

Similarly, finance was down 24.76 points or 3.23 per cent to 741.26 points and others fell 17.93 points or 2.38 per cent to 735.19 points.

Meanwhile, Shikhar Insurance topped the chart in terms of weekly turnover with Rs 354.47 million, followed by Siddhartha Bank with Rs 325.24 million, Everest Bank with Rs 219.55 million, Mega Bank with Rs 163.50 million and Bank of Kathmandu Lumbini with Rs 116.26 million.

Siddhartha Bank topped the chart with regards to trading volume and number of transactions, with 314,000 of its scrips changing hands through 1,848 transactions.