Kathmandu, March 15

Wary of the possible impact of global spread of coronavirus on the country’s economy, share investors rushed to offload their holdings today, causing the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) to tumble by 4.66 per cent or 64.14 points to 1,313.04 points.

“The investor sentiment has taken a massive beating as the coronavirus outbreak continues to make the headlines and investors are worried about its impact on the national economy,” said Uttam Aryal, chairperson of Investors Association of Nepal.

As the secondary market supposedly mirrors the economy, any event that adversely affects the economy naturally also impacts the share market, he explained.

It is to be noted that Nepse had extend the trading time by an hour from today. While the share market used to be open for trading from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm previously, the local bourse opened at 10:30 am and closed at 3:30 pm today.

The sensitive index went down by 4.36 per cent or 12.88 points to 282.62 points and float index dropped by 4.72 per cent or 4.62 points to 93.16 points.

Altogether, 5.57 million shares of 174 companies were traded through 24,041 transactions today that amounted to Rs 2.10 billion.

While all the sub-indices landed in the red zone, shareholders of insurance companies faced most losses today. Life insurance plunged by 7.87 per cent or 621.88 points to 7,275.44 points and nonlife insurance descended by 6.94 per cent or 416.73 points to 5,590.41 points.

Trading went down by 5.2 per cent or 43.79 points to 798.26 points and banking sub-index dropped by 4.7 per cent or 57 points to 1,154.61 points. Likewise, microfinance subgroup fell by 4.19 per cent or 93.43 points to 2,136.32 points and development banks sub-index lost 3.42 per cent or 62.87 points to 1,776.79 points.

The hydropower subgroup dropped by 3.35 per cent or 32.87 points to 947.99 points, finance was down 3.23 per cent or 22.2 points to 664.97 points and hotels sub-index fell by 3.18 points to 52.48 points to 1,596.17 points. The mutual fund lost 3.1 per cent or 0.31 points to 9.78 points.

Manufacturing and others subgroups managed to limit their losses below three per cent.

Among the listed firms, the share price of Samudayik Laghubitta Bittiya Sahstha and Himalayan General Insurance slumped by 10 per cent — the limit for a single day — to Rs 783 and Rs 360, respectively.

Moreover, Mithila Laghubittiya Bittiya Sanstha dropped by 9.98 per cent to Rs 667, Nerude Laghubitta Bikas Bank by 9.91 per cent to 672, Support Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha by 9.91 per cent to 836, Nepal Seva Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha by 9.91 per cent to 709 and Mero Microfinacne Bittiya Sanstha by 9.89 per cent to Rs 592.

Only three listed companies witnessed any gain today, with share price of United Modi Hydropower up 0.97 per cent to Rs 104, Sindu Bikas Bank up 0.77 per cent to Rs 131 and Womi Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha closing at Rs 860, up 0.47 per cent.