Secondary bourse descends by 4.54pc

Kathmandu, March 4

The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index again went into a tailspin today witnessing a plunge of 4.54 per cent or 68.47 points to 1,141.20 points, going below the psychological threshold of 1,450 points.

“The secondary market had begun sliding since Sunday as investor sentiment had been hit due to news of the possible reappointment of Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada,” said Uttam Aryal, chairperson of Investors Association of Nepal, adding, “And Khatiwada was reappointed as finance minister today as a result of which the market has seen this drastic downturn.”

The government today reappointed Khatiwada as minister of finance and also of communication and information technology.

Along with the Nepse index, the sensitive index also dropped by 4.68 per cent or 15.17 points to 308.87 points and float index fell by 4.51 per cent or 4.83 points to 102.31 points.

Altogether, 6.77 million shares of 174 companies worth Rs 2.91 billion were traded through 29,231 transactions today.

All the sub-indices landed in the red zone today.

Microfinance subgroup was biggest loser of the day, dropping by 6.16 per cent or 148.25 points to 2,257.02 points followed by non-life insurance which descended by 6.1 per cent or 406.95 points to 6,266.30 points.

Moreover, life insurance went down by 5.21 per cent or 456.96 points to 8,308.73 points and banking sub-index fell by 4.54 per cent or 60.97 points to 1,281.18 points. Likewise, hotels subgroup contracted by 4.28 per cent or 80.04 points to 1,788.57 points and others sub-index went down by 3.79 per cent or 28.5 points to 723.76 points.

The development banks subgroup also dipped by 3.69 per cent or 72.14 points to 1,881.87 points. Likewise, manufacturing subgroup shed 2.97 per cent or 88.67 points to 2,895.68 points and hydropower went down by 2.87 per cent or 29.96 points to 1,012.80 points.

Moreover, finance, mutual fund and trading sub-indices witnessed a drop of less than two per cent.

The share value of companies listed under microfinance subgroup plunged notably. National Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha, Nepal Seva Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha, Swadeshi Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha and Kalika Microcredit Development Bank faced negative circuit breakers as their share prices plummeted by 10 per cent — the upper limit for a drop for a single day — to Rs 1,737, Rs 720, Rs 972 and Rs 868, respectively.

Moreover, Sparsha Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha fell by 9.96 per cent to Rs 831, Civil Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha descended by 9.96 per cent to Rs 1,102, Forward Community Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha by 9.96 per cent to Rs 1,464, Ghodighoda Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha by 9.94 per cent to Rs 770 and Janautthan Samudayic Laghubitta Bikas Bank by 9.93 per cent to Rs 1,495.

Among the top gainers, Samudayik Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha’s share price increased by 5.17 per cent to Rs 875 and Reliance Finance went up by 5.04 per cent to Rs 146.