Kathmandu, March 18
The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index fell by 69.39 points or 3.46 per cent in the trading week between March 12 and 16.
Although it was anticipated that the market will perform better with the banks lowering the interest rates, improvement in remittance flow and the country's financial situation, the shift in the political situation, introduction of stringent policies by the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), weakening investor sentiment, and lack of fundamental investors, have affected the market's growth, according to the stakeholders.
The sensitive index, which measures performance of class 'A' stocks, decreased by 3.88 per cent or 14.72 points to 364.78 points in the review period. The float index that gauges performances of shares actually traded also fell by 3.67 per cent to 135.61 points.
Altogether 18.57 million shares were traded during the review week through 141,469 transactions that amounted to Rs 6.31 billion. The weekly turnover surged by 51.57 per cent compared to the previous trading week, when 12.45 million shares had changed hands through 93,407 transactions that totalled Rs 4.16 billion.
However, as the market was open for just three days in the previous week compared to the normal five trading days in the review week, the average daily turnover in the review week actually fell by 9.05 per cent to Rs 1.26 billion, compared to Rs 1.38 billion in the previous week.
The benchmark index had opened at 2,002.70 points on Sunday and fell by 26.80 points to retreat below the 2,000-point threshold to 1,975.90 points by the time of closing and went on to lose 24.69 on Monday. The market clawed back 1.85 points on Tuesday to 1,951.21 points. The gain, however, was lost the very next day when the market shed 14.44 points before falling further by 5.31 points on Thursday to settle at 1,933.31 for the trading week.
All of the sub-indices landed in the red this review week. Microfinance led the pack of losers after losing 5.45 per cent to 3,572.15 points; banking lost 4.66 per cent to 1,254.13 points; life insurance fell by 4.09 per cent to 9,649.51 points; development banks decreased by 3.07 per cent to 3,540.64; manufacturing and processing fell by 2.71 per cent to 4,456.88 points; finance lost 2.61 per cent to 1,655.41 points; and hotels and tourism by 2.46 per cent to 3,053.28 points.
Similarly, trading dropped 2.36 per cent to 2,101.91 points; investment lost 2.19 per cent to 64.31 points; nonlife insurance slumped by 2.14 per cent to 8,768.37 points; mutual funds decreased by 2.04 per cent to 13.92 points; hydropower fell by 1.73 per cent to 2,550 points and others by 1.38 per cent to 1,421.55 points.
A version of this article appears in the print on March 19, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
