Kathmandu, February 25

The Nepal Stock Exchange(Nepse) index fell by 47.77 points or 2.31 per cent to edge closer to 2,000 points in the trading week between February 19 and 23.

Although the market had witnessed steady growth and resurfaced above the 2,200-point threshold following the formation of the new government, among other factors, the benchmark index is expected to remain volatile unless further progress is seen in the country's financial situation, analysts say.

The sensitive index, which measures performance of class 'A' stocks, decreased by 3.05 per cent or 12.81 points to 384.36 points in the review period.

The float index that gauges the performance of shares actually traded also fell by 2.22 per cent to 142.07 points.

Altogether 17.19 million shares were traded during the review week through 156,668 transactions that amounted to Rs 6.27 billion. The weekly turnover dived by 23.18 per cent compared to the previous trading week, when 22.38 million shares had changed hands through 156,668 transactions that totalled Rs 8.25 billion.

As the market was open for just three days in the review week compared to the four trading days in the previous week, the average daily turnover in the review week actually went up by 17 per cent to Rs 2.09 billion, compared to Rs 2.06 billion in the previous week.

The benchmark index had opened at 2,070.41 points on Monday and fell by 23.60 points to 2,080.38 points by the time of closing. The market remained closed on Tuesday but then recouped the previous trading day's loss by rising 33.57 points on Wednesday to 2,080.38 points. But on Thursday, the Nepse index fell again by 57.74 points to settle at 2,022.64 for the trading week.

Microfinance led the pack of losers after falling by 12.87 per cent to 3,907.02 points. Similarly, manufacturing and processing fell by 3.79 per cent to 4,947.37 points; trading dropped 1.63 per cent to 2,185.98 points; others lost 1.63 per cent to 1,463.55 points; banking decreased by 1.29 per cent to 1,334.51 points; mutual funds fell by 1.19 per cent to 14.12 points; and life insurance by 1.06 per cent to 10,204.44 points.

Meanwhile, the hotels and tourism subgroup fell by one per cent to 3,091.80 points; non-life insurance by 0.91 per cent to 8,873.33 points; finance by 8.74 per cent to 1,699.70 points; development banks by 0.31 per cent to 3,637.13 points, investment by 0.02 per cent to 64.84 points, and hydropower by 0.58 per cent or 14.80 points to 2,556.46 points.

A version of this article appears in the print on February 26, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.