Kathmandu, May 27 :

Weak performance of commercial banks group has hit the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index this week too. As a result, the Nepse index plunged by 13.76 points, which is one of the highest fall in Nepse index in recent months.

The trading at the country’s sole secondary market opened with its index at 382.65 points on Sunday and plummeted to close at 368.89 points on Thursday, the last day of the trading under a regular lot. The bearish trend began last week, when the Nepse index dropped by 1.78 points after three weeks’ impressive growth. Despite a steady growth of trading and finance groups, the leading scrip - commercial banks group - suffered a heavy loss which led to an overall decline in the Nepse index.

According to Nepse, a total of 1,307,521 units of shares valued at Rs 1,39,357,096 were traded through 1,413 transactions during the week. Last week, a total of 255,839 units

of shares changed hands generating a turnover of Rs 1,52,717,592 from 2,270 transactions. Out of the 65 listed companies for share trading, only 54 companies saw their transaction this week.

The weekly trading report shows that the index of the commercial banks group, which is the largest scrip by volume at Nepse, plummeted by 21.33 points, the biggest loss after recovery a month ago. The index of the group that opened at 440.24 points on Sunday plunged to 418.91 points on the closing day.

Similarly, the insurance and the development banks groups also showed weak performance as their indices stood at 351.37 points and 278.86 points respectively on the closing day from the opening 351.94 points and 282.99 points respectively. But on other hand, the trading and the finance groups maintained growth, as their index closed at 148.11 points and 254.36 points respectively on the last day from 147.27 points and 253.59 points on the opening day.

Albeit marginally, the hotel group’s index also posted a growth and closed at 179.42 points. The group’s index was 147.27 points on Sunday. The manufacturing and the other groups, meanwhile, saw no changes in their indices and remained constant at 292,34 points and

363.69 points respectively throughout the week.

Of the total transactions during this week, the commercial banks group dominated the Nepse floor by capturing a large chunk. The group cornered 75.85 per cent of the total share trading. The share of finance group comprised of 15.37 per cent, while the insurance group followed it by 8.15 per cent. The trading group was able to capture only 0.77 per cent, while the development bank group had a mere 0.35 per cent share in the overall trading.

In terms of the maximum number of transactions, Siddhartha Bank topped the list with 352 transactions, while Nepal Share Markets and Finance Company outshone others for the largest number of share units traded during the week with a total of 102,290 shares.

But Standard Chartered Bank Nepal stood first in terms of monetary value and its trading value stood at Rs 18,396,393.

The Nepse floor remained open for five days, where the shares of Nepal Investment Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Himalayan Bank, Nepal SBI Bank, Everest Bank, Bank of Kathmandu, NIC Bank, Machhapuchre Bank, Kumari Bank, Siddhartha Bank and Nepal Life Insurance Company were traded throughout the week.