KATHMANDU, MAY 13

The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index slipped by 31 points or 1.67 per cent in the trading week between May 7 and 11, with most investors in 'wait-andsee' mode prior to the third quarterly review of the Monetary Policy.

Although the central bank has decided to decrease bank rates by one per cent, and to allow banks and financial institutions (BFIs) to restructure all loans up to Rs 50 million through the third quarterly review of the Monetary Policy on Friday, the demands set forth by share investors to reduce risk weighted average to 100 per cent and remove cap set on margin loans have remained unaddressed and will likely weigh on market movement, market analysts say.

The sensitive index, which measures performance of class 'A' stocks, dropped by 1.35 per cent or 4.82 points to 353.0 9 points in the review period. The float index that gauges performances of shares actually traded also fell by 1.61 per cent to 128.65 points.

Altogether 11.71 million shares were traded during the review week through 101,719 transactions that amounted to nearly Rs 3.37 billion. The weekly turnover rose by 12.51 per cent compared to previous trading week, when 10.23 million shares had changed hands through 87,981 transactions that totalled nearly three billion rupees.

The average turnover in the review week stood at Rs 675.01 million, down nine per cent compared to the average turnover of Rs 749.88 million in the previous week. It may also be noted that the market was open for just four days in the previous week compared to the normal five trading days in the review week.

The benchmark index had opened at 1,869.73 points on Sunday and fell by 19.12 points to 1,850.61 points by the time of closing. The market shed 16.92 points on Monday before increasing by 10.67 points on Tuesday to 1,844.36 points. Nepse index fell by 2.43 points on Wednesday before falling further by 3.34 points on Thursday to settle at 1,838.59 points for the trading week.

Apart from manufacturing and processing and mutual funds, all the sub-indices landed in the red this week. Manufacturing and processing subgroup advanced by 1.11 per cent to 4,395.91 points while the mutual funds subgroup inched up by 0.07 per cent to 13.54 points.

Meanwhile, hydropower led the pack of loser after plunging by 3.16 per cent to 2,289.56 points; hotels and tourism lost 2.95 per cent to 3,430.84 points; finance decreased by 2.36 per cent to 1,531.02 points; microfinance fell 2.26 per cent to 3,235.72 points; others dropped 2.25 per cent to 1,348.13 points; non-life insurance decreased by 2.15 per cent to 8,452.68 points; trading slipped by 2.15 per cent to 2,012.48 points; development banks by 1.31 per cent to 3,391.88 points; investment by 1.20 per cent to 61.88 points; banking by 1.14 per cent to 1,214.17 points; and life insurance by 1.01 per cent to 9,238.52 points.

A version of this article appears in the print on May 14, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.