Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index fell by 15.41 points to close at 1,969.02 points on Monday.
The benchmark index, which snapped a five-day losing streak on Sunday, returned to a losing way again. Although the market posted gains initially, reaching an intra-day high of 1,992.78 points, it erased all the gains to eventually end the session 0.77% lower.
Such was the selling pressure on the bourse that unit prices of 186 declined on the day, while 49 advanced and 10 remained unchanged. Gurkhas Finance Ltd logged the highest turnover of the day with shares worth Rs 115.47 million traded. Next were Joshi Hydropower Development Company Ltd and Sarbottam Cement Ltd with turnovers of Rs 101.06 million and Rs 58.46 million, respectively.
Except for the Mutual Fund sub-index, which posted a nominal gain of 0.02%, all the sub-indices posted losses on Monday. The biggest loss came from the Finance sub-index, which was down by 2.1%. Following closely were Manufacturing & Processing and Microfinance sub-indices with losses of 1.2% and 0.97%, respectively.
Shares worth Rs 2.05 billion were traded on the secondary market on Monday through 38,552 transactions – the lowest since December 6 last year. The secondary market saw fewer transactions than this when circuit breakers were clamped.
