KATHMANDU, MARCH 5

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) took a significant tumble on Tuesday, plummeting by 70.31 points, marking a 3.38% decline to settle at 2,007.69 points by day's end, barely clinging to the 2,000-point mark. This downturn followed a robust 117-point surge the previous day.

Yesterday saw the market closing early at 12:04 pm after three consecutive circuit breaks triggered at 2,078 points. It's the second time in recent months that the market has closed due to a third circuit break, the last instance being on December 10.

Starting at 2,095.2 points at 11 am, the market witnessed a sharp drop within six minutes, with the NEPSE index plummeting to 2,037.17 points. Though there was a brief recovery to 2,060.68 within another six minutes, the index couldn't sustain the momentum, slipping again to 2,032.95 points by 11:25 am. Despite minor fluctuations thereafter, the NEPSE failed to regain its early levels, let alone recover from the day's fall.

As the benchmark index faltered, both the sensitive index, evaluating 'A' class stocks, and the float index, measuring actively traded shares, experienced declines of 3.24% and 3.37%, respectively.

Today, the market was predominantly in the red, with the mutual fund sector being the sole exception, posting a modest gain of 0.66%. Notably, it was also the only sector to record losses amid the substantial surges seen in other sectors on Monday. The 'Others' sector led the losses today with a 4.35% decline, followed by the hydropower sector at 4.30%, and the manufacturing and processing sector at 4.20%. Most other sectors also saw losses exceeding 3%.

Despite the market downturn, daily turnover reached Rs 4.1 billion from the exchange of 11,467,599 units of shares from 316 companies in 69,208 transactions. This marks an upward trend compared to recent days, where intraday turnover has been declining.

In today's trading, just 33 companies advanced while 213 declined and two remained unchanged as Bottlers Nepal emerged as the top loser, with both Bottlers Nepal (Balaju) Limited (BNL) and Bottlers Nepal (Terai) Limited (BNT) shedding 10% and 9.45%, respectively.

Sonapur Minerals and Oil Limited (SONA) maintained its dominance in terms of turnover, volume, and transactions, with 850,464 units of its shares traded for Rs 419,122,735.40 across 5,637 transactions.