Nepse down 58.05 points, drops below 2,600-point level

KATHMANDU: The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index failed to hold on to Monday’s gains and ended the session 58.05 points lower at 2,582.73 points on Tuesday.

This is the lowest close since January 1, when the market ended the session at 2,581 points. With this, the Nepse index has closed below the psychological 2,600-point level for the first time since January 16.

After six days of loss, the Nepse index had posted a gain of 26.1 points on Monday. Investors were hopeful that Monday’s gains would spark a recovery on the bourse, but they were left disappointed.

The benchmark index has shed 307.55 points over the past 16 sessions, during which it ended in the green only on two occasions. More than Rs 500 billion has been wiped out from the stock market since March 2, when the market closed at 2,890.28 points with a market capitalization of Rs 4.777 trillion. Market capitalization dropped to Rs 4.288 trillion on Tuesday.

Unit prices of 240 scrips declined during the session, while four advanced. Himalaya Reinsurance Ltd logged the highest turnover on Tuesday with Rs 232 million worth of shares traded. Next were Nepal Reinsurance Company Ltd and United Modi Hydropower Ltd with turnovers of Rs 213.91 million and Rs 173.43 million, respectively.

All trading groups ended the session in the red on Tuesday. The biggest loss came from the Finance sub-index, which was down by 3.41%, followed by the Development Bank and Hydropower sub-indices with losses of 3.26% and 3.08%.

Despite the loss in the Nepse index, total turnover improved to Rs 5.18 billion, with 11.15 million units of shares traded through 62,021 transactions.