KATHMANDU, MARCH 31
The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE), the country's sole secondary market, faced a downturn on the first trading day of the week, with a decrease of 17.30 points or 0.85%, settling at 2,018.33 points.
In tandem with the benchmark index, the sensitive index, which assesses the performance of 'A' class stocks, also experienced a decline of 0.70%. The float index, indicating actively traded shares, followed suit with a drop of 0.66%.
Today, the market exhibited an overall negative trend, with all sectors, except for Non-Life Insurance, registering losses. The Non-Life Insurance sector saw a minor gain of 0.12%. Notably, the Manufacturing and Processing sector incurred the most significant losses at 3.65%, followed by the Trading, Microfinance, and Development Bank sectors, with losses of 1.74%, 1.20%, and 1.09%, respectively.
Despite the market's downward trajectory, daily turnover showed improvement, amounting to Rs 3.2 billion from the exchange of 7,957,659 units of shares across 316 companies in 67,044 transactions. The intraday turnover was Rs 2.6 billion on Thursday last week.
Although the market saw a majority of companies declining, with only 63 advancing and 10 remaining unchanged, Maya Khola Hydropower Company Limited (MKHC) bucked the trend, recording a 10% increase in its shares.
Conversely, Sarbottam Cement Limited (SARBTM) which had been surging since its listing experienced a significant 9.99% loss in its share value today. However, despite this decline, it emerged as the top company in terms of turnover, volume, and transactions, with 290,136 units of shares traded for Rs 286,893,331.80 across 7,620 transactions.
The total market capitalization stood at Rs 3.200 trillion.
