Kathmandu, September 4

The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index fell for the fourth consecutive trading day today — the first day of the trading week. The secondary market dipped by 1.61 per cent or 25.47 points today to close the day at 1,554.56 points.

The market had seen a decline of 10.41 points on August 28. Similarly, it was southbound by 14.55 points on August 30 and continued with this downward trend on August 31 too, descending by 18.33 points.

The benchmark index that opened on 1580.03 points today started declining as trading began with all the sub-indices in the red. The fall in the stock market was driven by the financial sector today — banking, development banks, finance companies and insurance sector.

The sub-index of banking sector dropped by 1.89 per cent or 25.74 points to 1,336.61 points. Likewise, development banks also declined by 1.8 per cent or 36.17 points to 1,970.72 points.

Similarly, the sub-index of the insurance sector witnessed a fall of 1.54 per cent or 136.73 points to rest at 8,718.01 points today. Meanwhile, the finance sector too slipped into the red zone dropping by 4.01 points or 0.51 per cent to close at 786.56 points.

Another sub-index to take a beating today was the hydropower sector that declined by 1.08 per cent or 19.73 points to 1,805.86 points. The hotels sector too descended to 2,367.18 points, falling by 13.25 points or 0.56 per cent.

Both the manufacturing and others sectors today fell by 0.69 per cent. The sub-index of manufacturing sector was down by 18.46 points to 2,646.54 points and others sub-index dropped to 710.90 points, a decline of 4.91 points.

In terms of total turnover, First Microfinance Development Bank topped the list with Rs 32.75 million. The last trading price of the company was Rs 1,049. Likewise, the share price of RSDC Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha increased by 9.94 per cent to Rs 1,217, whereas investors of Hamro Bikash Bank lost their share value by 6.97 per cent to Rs 202.

A total of 1.57 million shares of 152 listed firms worth Rs 842.92 million were traded today through 9,241 transactions.