Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index shed 27.89 points, closing trading at 2,654.35 points on Wednesday.
Although the benchmark opened with a slight gain, it plunged within the first 15 minutes of trading. The index recovered somewhat after an hour but slipped again and eventually closed the session 1.03% lower.
Stock market analysts say the index declined after two straight days of gains as investors sold their securities to arrange funds for the Dashain celebration.
Unit prices of 193 scrips declined during the session, while 53 advanced and five remained unchanged. Union Hydropower Ltd topped the turnover chart with Rs 221.38 million worth of shares traded. Nepal Reinsurance Company Ltd and Himalayan Reinsurance Company Ltd followed with total turnovers of Rs 173.25 million and Rs 133.75 million, respectively. Total turnover fell to Rs 4.40 billion compared to the previous session. A total of 9.4 million units were traded through 47,852 transactions on Wednesday.
Except for Hotels & Tourism and Mutual Fund sub-indices, which posted marginal gains, all trading groups ended the session in the red. The Others sub-index logged the highest loss of 2.16%. Next were Investment and Trading sub-indices with losses of 1.9% and 1.65%, respectively.
