KATHMANDU: The bull-run of the past two weeks in the country’s one and only secondary market came to a screeching halt as profit-taking caused the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index to shave 13.36 points or 1.42 per cent week-on-week, from June 14 to 18.

Stock analysts say the recent minor fluctuations point towards market stabilising, and pose no cause for concern.

“Greater selling pressure may be witnessed in the coming days, which could weigh on the Nepse index,” opined Prakash Rajaure, a stock market analyst. He further said the stock market did not see the massive bull run as expected, as the demand for banking stocks and scrips of Nepal Telecom, among others, was comparatively muted.

Starting the trading week at 937.96 points on Sunday, the benchmark index dropped by 9.61 points by the day’s closing. Even as Nepse increased by 5.38 points on Monday, the local bourse was southbound for the remaining three trading days — shedding 3.03 points, 2.85 points and 3.25 points on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, respectively — to settle at 924.6 points for the week.

In total, 2.89 million units of shares of 151 companies worth Rs 985.72 million were traded at the stock exchange through 7,058 transactions in the trading week. The traded amount was 39.16 per cent less compared to the previous week when 3.99 million scrips of 154 firms worth Rs 1.62 billion changed hands through 10,776 transactions.

The sensitive index dropped by 3.12 points to 197.71 points. Similarly, the float index dipped by 1.07 points to 66.06 points.

Apart from trading — which remained constant at 220.54 points — and manufacturing, all the subgroups landed in the red zone during the trading week.

Unilever’s share value went up by Rs 770 to Rs 19,880, which pulled up the manufacturing sub-index by 37.16 points to 1,570.28 points.

Similar to the previous week, insurance retained its spot as the top loser among the pack, diving by a massive 55.81 points to 3,806.04 points.

National Life’s share value dropped to Rs 1,692, down Rs 98, while Prime Life’s was down Rs 24 to Rs 1,074, among others.

Hydropower subgroup saw nearly all the gains made in the past week wiped out, as it plunged by 44.78 points to 2,100.07 points. Chilime’s stocks were down Rs 27 to be priced at Rs 1,533 and Sanima Mai’s down Rs 15 to Rs 675.

Banking, the subgroup with the highest stake in market capitalisation, descended to 811.94 points from 827.29 points in the preceding week. Nabil Bank’s scrips tumbled by Rs 60 to close at Rs 1,880 and Standard Chartered landed at Rs 1,875, less Rs 70.

Development banks barely managed to limit its loss to a single digit, dropping by 9.35 points to 768.33 points. Even though Nagbeli’s share value surged by Rs 157 to Rs 1,921, Swabalamban’s fell by Rs 48 to 1,547 and Jyoti’s by Rs 16 to Rs 161.

Finance was down 5.94 points to 517.14 points this time around. Nepal Telecom’s stock price dipped by five rupees to Rs 611, which dragged the others subgroup down by 5.87 points to 717.83 points.

After recording double-digit falls in the past few weeks, hotels managed to limit its loss to a minimal 3.19 points to 1,841.6 points as Soaltee’s scrips closed at Rs 411, less one rupee.

Nepal Life Insurance was the forerunner in terms of turnover with Rs 63.58 million. Nabil Bank (Promoter Share) with Rs 52.4 million, Everest Bank with Rs 49.63 million, Nepal Investment Bank (Promoter Share) with Rs 40.41 million and Prime Commercial Bank with Rs 40.17 million rounded up the top five spots in this category.

Meanwhile, Siddhartha Equity Oriented Scheme secured the top spot in regards to number of shares traded with 414,000 of its scrips changing hands and Century Commercial Bank took the lead in terms of transactions with 273 deal.