KATHMANDU, Sept 2: Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) plunged 23.34 points last week amid dwindling confidence of investors due to soaring inflation and increased interest rates of banks.
The secondary market opened four days for trading with the government announcing a public holiday on Thursday marking Janai Purnima, a festival of Hindu. The market opened at 2,013.93 points on Sunday while it closed at 1,990.59 points on Wednesday. During the period, the index went as high as 2,015.85 points and as low as 1,985.47 points, taking the market to the volatility of 30.38 points.
The market started the week with a drop of 20.54 points. On Monday too, the index inclined slightly by 5.09 points. On consecutive two days, the market inclined marginally by 5.05 points and 2.82 points, respectively.
Along with a fall in the market index, the total turnover amount declined heavily to Rs 4.246 billion from Rs 7.247 billion in the previous week. This shows that the transaction volume dropped 41.43 percent. In the previous week, the amount dropped 44.72 percent.
The average daily turnover amount also fell to Rs 1.061 billion from Rs 1.449 billion during the review period.
Three groups including trading, hotels and tourism, and mutual funds gained 33.72 points, 5.29 points and 0.08 points, respectively. Of the 10 losers, the index of life insurance fell 139.65 points, the highest among all.
Among the individual companies, Makar Jitumaya Suri Hydropower Company Limited fell 14.31 percent and posted the biggest loss. Similarly, Kutheli Bukhari Small Hydropower Limited gained the highest of 25.80 percent.
The market capitalization further declined to Rs 2.979 trillion from Rs 3.014 trillion during the review period. As a result, the investors lost Rs 35 billion from their investment portfolio in the share market. In the previous week, investors had lost over Rs 29 billion.