Stock market suffers huge loss

Stock market suffered a high loss this week following a sharp decline in the share prices of the major scrips. The index of Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) slipped by about 19 point this week.

The stock market decreased by 18.56 points, which was one of the highest weekly falls in recent months. The data of Nepse shows, the turnover stood at Rs. 169.60 million over the week, when a total of 338,116 units of shares were traded through 4,275 transactions.

During the previous week, a total of 270,850 units of shares changed hands in the bourse on a turnover of Rs. 144.30 million.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) opened at 505.37 points, but soon slid down, closing at 486.81 points on Friday.

In group wise share trading, the manufacturing group maintained a steady growth of 3.31 points despite a heavy loss in the overall market. The group, which had gained over 20 points last week, opened at 342.69 points on Sunday and closed at 346.04 points.

Hotel group increased to 220.49 points from an opening 219.33 points on Sunday.

On the other hand, leading scrips including commercial banks and development banks groups suffered heavily, which dragged the country’s sole secondary market down.

The commercial banks’ index plunged by 26.04 points to land at 509.55 points. This group had suffered a heavy loss last week too. It opened at 535.59 points on Sunday.

Similarly, the finance group also incurred a huge loss, as its index fell by 9.80 points. The group’s index that stood at 446.92 points on Sunday dropped to 437.12 points on the closing day.

Likewise, the index of development banks group plummeted by 36.50 points and others group lost 5.07 points.
Of the total turnover, the commercial banks group accounted for 72.44 percent. The finance group came second capturing 9.83 percent. The development banks group had 9.03 percent, followed by the others group with 4.50 percent.

Shikhar Insurance topped all in terms of number of transactions as its shares were traded through 1,182 transactions. Bank of Kathmandu kept itself ahead of others both in terms of number of shares traded and turnover. The company's 28,005 units of shares were traded at Rs 24.95 million