KATHMANDU, MAY 6

The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index slipped by 20 points or 1.06 per cent in the trading week between April 30 and May 4.

The sensitive index, which measures performance of class 'A' stocks, dropped by 0.88 per cent or 3.18 points to 357.91 points in the review period. The float index that gauges performances of shares actually traded also fell by 1.21 per cent to 130.76 points.

Altogether 10.23 million shares were traded during the review week through 87,981 transactions that amounted to nearly Rs three billion. The weekly turnover fell by 25 per cent compared to the previous trading week, when 12.44 million shares had changed hands through 137,674 transactions that totalled Rs 4.05 billion.

The average turnover in the review week stood at Rs 749.88 million, down seven per cent compared to the average turnover of Rs 810.42 million in the previous week. It may be noted that the market was open for just four days in the review week compared to the normal five trading days in the previous week.

The benchmark index had opened at 1,889.73 points on Sunday and fell by 19.08 points to 1,870.65 points by the time of closing. The market was closed on Monday on the occasion of International Labours Day but went on to lose 4.25 points on Tuesday to 1,866.40 points.

The benchmark index fell further by 9.17 points on Wednesday before recouping some of the earlier losses by increasing by 12.50 points on Thursday to settle at 1,869.73 points for the trading week.

Apart from non-life insurance, all the sub indices landed in the red this week. Non-Life insurance subgroup gained 0.57 per cent to 8,638.71 points.

Hydropower led the pack of losers after plunging by 2.72 per cent to 2,364.18 points. Similarly, trading fell by 2.65 per cent to 2,049.20 points; microfinance decreased by 1.55 per cent to 3,310.40 points; others dropped by 1.44 per cent to 1,379.12 points; and hotels and tourism lost 1.17 per cent to 3,535.08 points.

Meanwhile, life insurance subgroup decreased by 1.01 per cent to 9,332.52 points; development banks lost 0.77 per cent to 3,436.99 points; banking fell by 0.68 per cent to 1,228.20 points; finance by 0.62 per cent to 1,568.10 points; investment by 0.60 per cent to 62.63 points; mutual funds by 0.29 per cent to 13.53 points; and manufacturing and processing by 0.11 per cent to 4,347.77 points.

A version of this article appears in the print on May 7, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.