Kathmandu, April 8
The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index dropped by 41.76 points or 2.19 per cent to retreat below the 1,900-point threshold in the trading week between April 2 and 6.
The sensitive index, which measures performance of class 'A' stocks, dropped by 1.79 per cent or 6.45 points to 353.03 points in the review period. The float index that gauges performances of shares actually traded also fell by 2.22 per cent to 130.54 points.
Altogether 15.06 million shares were traded during the review week through 127,930 transactions that amounted to Rs 4.78 billion. The weekly turnover fell by 18 per cent compared to the previous trading week, when 17.43 million shares had changed hands through 156,921 transactions that had totalled Rs 5.83 billion.
The average turnover in the review week stood at Rs 965 million, compared to the average turnover of Rs 1.16 billion in the previous week.
The benchmark index had opened at 1,908.55 points on Sunday and fell by 20 points to 1,888.55 points by the time of closing for the day. The market went on to lose 16.67 points on Monday to 1,871.88 points before shedding another 5.20 points on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the benchmark clawed back the loss of the previous day by gaining 8.39 points. However, the optimism could not last as the Nepse index lost almost all of the gain of the previous day by falling 8.28 points on Thursday to settle at 1,866.79 for the trading week.
All of the subgroups landed in the red this week. Non-life insurance led the pack of gainers after decreasing by 3.56 per cent to 8,444.55 points; hydropower fell by 3.45 per cent to 2,465.93 points; finance lost 3.08 per cent to 1,573.67 points; development banks retreated by 2.86 per cent to 3,413.19 points; investment lost 2.58 per cent to 63.05 points; manufacturing and processing by 2.39 per cent to 4,299.68 points and others by 2.13 per cent to 1,403.77 points.
Similarly, life insurance dropped 1.61 per cent to 9,371.20 points; banking decreased by 1.60 per cent to 1,202.92 points; microfinance fell by 1.50 per cent to 3,368.98 points; trading lost 1.47 per cent to 2,099.96 points; mutual funds fell by 1.19 per cent to 13.27 points and hotels and tourism shed 0.32 per cent to 3,165.47 points.
A version of this article appears in the print on April 9, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
