Kathmandu, August 23:

Nepal Stock Exchange Ltd (Nepse) slowed down this week too shedding 22.52 points to touch 1062.24 points from last week’s closing mark of 1084.76 points.

The market correction is evident as even the mightiest bull market makes time to recoup. Not only did the market shed points, the transacted amount also decreased by 28.9 per cent from last week.

However, 15,00,00,000-unit of Nepal Telecom (NT) shares worth Rs 150 million that was listed last Friday will start trading from Sunday, pushing the sole secondary market up this week.

The market was open on only four days this week as Sunday was a public holiday. The secondary market ended in the green zone on just one day in the four-day session this week.

The market opened in the red as it lost 8.89 points to touch 1075.87 points on Monday from last week’s closing mark of 1084.76 points. It slid further by 18.34 points to touch 1057.53 points on Tuesday. However, on Wednesday it gained 6.75 points to reach 1064.28 points.

Thursday witnessed yet another market correction as Nepse lost 2.04 points to close the market at 1062.24 points.

The commercial banks group — major player in Nepse — shed 35.97 points to touch 1107.65 points from last week’s closing mark of 1143.62 points, pulling Nepse down.

The contribution of financial companies listed under ‘A’ category dominated the market has increased this week to 80.01 per cent against last week’s 76.10 points in the total transactions.

However, the sensitive index — a barometer of A category companies — lost 16.54 points to fall to 283.61 points from last week’s closing mark of 290.15 points.

Nepal Investment Bank with Rs 131.19 million, Standard Chartered Bank Nepal with Rs 40.20 million, Kist Merchant and Finance with Rs 36.11 million, Bank of Kathmandu with Rs 32.61 million and NIC Bank with Rs 30.37 million were the top five gainers in terms of monetary value this week.

Gains in monetary value aside, Nepal Investment Bank topped the chart in terms of number of transactions, with 391 transactions in its kitty. NCC Bank topped the chart in terms of number of shares traded with 50,000-unit of shares transacted this week.

Nepse witnessed a transaction of 82 companies against only 78 last week. Though this week Kumari Bank bonds were listed — making a total of 11 bonds — fetching eight per cent interest rates this week too, Nepse did not see any transaction of bonds or debentures.