KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 24

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) witnessed a decline of 21.03 points on the first trading day of the week, marking a 0.99% decrease to settle at 2,088.07 points by the day's end.

Similarly, the sensitive index, evaluating 'A' class stocks, also experienced a drop to 391.33 points, indicating a decrease of 5.29 points or 1.33%. The float index, reflecting the performance of actively traded shares, closed at 142.93 points, showing a decline of 1.58 points or 1.09%.

Despite the downturn in the indices, four sub-indices recorded slight increases: Hydropower, Life Insurance, Non-Life Insurance, and Others indices gained by 0.08%, 0.52%, 0.56%, and 0.97%, respectively. Meanwhile, the Investment index led the losers with a 3.89% loss, followed closely by the Trading index with a 3.11% drop and the Manufacturing and Processing index with a 2.75% decline.

In contrast to the market turbulence, the daily turnover spiked, exceeding Rs 7.111 billion, facilitated by the exchange of 18,589,379 units of shares across 309 companies in a total of 128,356 transactions.

Today, only 79 companies advanced, while 161 declined, and 6 remained unchanged in terms of their share values. Five companies experienced a positive circuit break of 10% in terms of their share values, led by Bottlers Nepal (Balaju) Limited (BNL) with a 578.40 point increase. Meanwhile, two scrips, Jyoti Bikas Bond 2087 (JBBD87) and Nepal Republic Media Limited (NRM), recorded a negative circuit break of 10%.

Shivam Cements Ltd (SHIVM) led in terms of turnover with Rs 304,328,066.20, Himal Dolakha Hydropower Company Limited (HDPC) was the top company in volume (666,643 units of its shares traded), and Sonapur Minerals and Oil Limited (SONA) claimed the top position in terms of transactions, with its scrips traded 8,675 times.

The total market capitalization stood at Rs 3.243 trillion today.