Kathmandu, April 1

The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index slipped by 6.77 points or 0.34 per cent in the trading week between March 26 and 30.

Although the market had witnessed a steady growth and resurfaced above the 2,200-point threshold in January, the benchmark index is expected to remain volatile unless the newly introduced guidelines and regulations by the Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) are ratified by the Supreme Court, investors say.

The sensitive index, which measures performance of class 'A' stocks, dropped by 0.42 per cent or 1.53 points to 359.48 points in the review period. The float index that gauges performances of shares actually traded also fell by 0.68 per cent to 133.50 points.

Altogether 17.43 million shares were traded during the review week through 156,921 transactions that amounted to Rs 5.83 billion. The weekly turnover rose by 14 per cent compared to the previous trading week, when 16.53 million shares had changed hands through 120,227 transactions that totalled Rs 5.11 billion.

The average turnover in the review week stood at Rs 1.16 billion, down eight per cent compared to the average turnover of Rs 1.27 billion in the previousweek. It may be noted that the market was open for just four days in the previous week compared to the five trading days in the review week.

The benchmark index had opened at 1,915.14 points on Sunday and fell by 26.84 points to 1,888.30 points by the time of closing. The market went on to gain 17.70 points on Monday to 1,906.00 points before increasing again by 12.41 points on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the benchmark gained 1.01 points before falling by 10.87 points on Thursday to settle at 1,908.55 for the trading week.

Microfinance led the pack of losers after falling by 1.68 per cent to 3,420.26 points. Similarly, mutual funds fell by 1.54 per cent to 13.43 points; banking decreased by 1.26 per cent to 1,222.53 points; finance fell by 0.84 per cent to 1,623.72 points; and development banks lost 0.46 per cent to 3,513.76 points.

Meanwhile, the hotels and tourism subgroup led the pack of gainers after increasing by 3.47 per cent to 3,175.61 points; manufacturing and processing gained 1.26 per cent to 4,405.18 points; others rose by 0.70 per cent to 1,434.29 points; life insurance by 0.64 per cent to 9,524.08 points; investment by 0.40 per cent to 64.72 points; non-life insurance by 0.40 per cent to 8,756.32 points; hydropower by 0.16 per cent to 2,554.17 points; and trading by 0.02 per cent to 2,131.27 points.

A version of this article appears in the print on April 1, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.