Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index fell by 20.56 points on Wednesday to close at 2,544.59 points, as broad-based losses pulled the market back into negative territory after a brief recovery in the previous session.
The benchmark, which opened higher and gained briefly early in the day, soon slipped into the red, ending the session 0.8% lower. The decline comes a day after Nepse snapped a three-day losing streak with a nominal gain on Tuesday.
Despite the setback, market turnover showed a slight improvement, reaching Rs 3.84 billion, with 8.4 million shares traded across 66,824 transactions.
Of the traded scrips, 198 declined, while 49 advanced and seven remained unchanged. NRN Infrastructure & Development led the turnover chart with Rs 403.30 million worth of shares traded. Next were Radhi Bidyut Company and Sahas Urja with turnovers of Rs 221.41 million and Rs 140.13 million, respectively.
All sectoral indices, except Manufacturing & Processing, which edged up 0.23 percent, ended lower. The Trading sub-index logged the steepest decline of 2.35%.
