Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) extended its losing streak to a third consecutive session on Wednesday, closing 10.5 points lower at 2,785.74 points.
The benchmark index has now shed 216.33 points since hitting a four-year high of 3,002.07 points on July 29. The Nepse index has closed in positive territory only twice since then.
Nepse opened on a positive note, climbing to an intra-day high of 2,813.59 points. It, however, pared all early gains as the session progressed and eventually ended 0.37% lower.
The unit prices of 159 scrips declined during the session, while 89 advanced and one remained unchanged. Balephi Hydropower Ltd topped the turnover chart with shares worth Rs 341.12 million changing hands. United Modi Hydropower Ltd and Shivam Cements were next with turnovers of Rs 274.74 million and Rs 240.04 million, respectively.
The total turnover slipped to Rs 6.16 billion from the previous session, with 15.84 million shares traded through 70,099 transactions.
Among sectoral indices, four posted marginal gains while nine closed in the red. The Trading sub-index suffered the steepest drop of 1.5%. Banking and Life Insurance sub-indices followed with losses of 0.69% and 0.56%, respectively.
