KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 15

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) took a dip of 14.46 points on Thursday, marking a 0.69% decrease, settling at 2,062.03 points by day's end.

In sync with this decline, the sensitive index, assessing the performance of 'A' class stocks, also witnessed a 0.99% drop, while the float index, reflecting actively traded shares, fell by 0.65%.

As the benchmark index declined, the intra-day turnover also decreased to Rs 3.8 billion, attributed to the trading of 11,407,264 units of shares from 305 companies across 81,056 transactions. This marks a decrease from yesterday's figure of Rs 4.2 billion.

The market appeared predominantly red today, with the sole exception of the Manufacturing and Processing sector, which saw a slight uptick of 0.15%.

Conversely, the finance sector, which led yesterday's market surge with an impressive 6.56% gain, experienced a significant downturn today, leading the pack of losers with a 2.71% fall. It was trailed by the development bank sector, which recorded a 1.40% drop, having been one of the front runners in yesterday's upswing with a 2.38% increase.

While only 79 companies advanced, 163 companies saw a decline, and seven remained unchanged, two companies-Bottlers Nepal (Balaju) Limited (BNL) and Samaj Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited (SAMAJ)-saw a remarkable 10% surge in their share values.

Himalayan Reinsurance Company retained its position as the top company in terms of turnover (Rs 228,576,267.10) and transactions (7,712).

The total market capitalization today amounted to Rs 3.241 trillion.