Kathmandu, August 12
Due to the uncertainty in the market, the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index dropped by 1.41 per cent or 16.69 points to rest at 1,163.94 points today, the lowest in the last 31 months. The last time that the index was at such a low point was on January 7, 2016 when it was at 1,164.14 points.
The country’s sole secondary market moved closer towards psychological threshold of 1,150 points today.
“The main reason for the market going down continuously is due to the lack of investor confidence in the market,” said Uttam Aryal, chairman of Investors Association of Nepal. “There has been literally no buying activity in recent days.”
The sensitive index too shed 1.38 per cent or 3.43 points to rest at 245.7 points and the float index also went down by 1.49 per cent or 1.26 points to rest at 83.52 points today.
Out of the 11 sub-indices at Nepse, only the trading and hotels subgroups witnessed some gains today. The trading sub-index increased by 1.05 per cent or 2.11 points to land at 203.02 points. Likewise, hotels subgroup also rose by 0.36 per cent or 6.73 points to rest at 1,851.67 points.
Meanwhile, the life insurance sub-index led the pack of losers falling by 3.35 per cent or 193.37 points to 5578.03 points. The manufacturing subgroup also decreased by 2.95 per cent or 63.58 points to rest at 2,094.74 points.
Likewise, the microfinance subgroup descended by 2.09 per cent or 31.53 points to 1,477.35 points and the non-life insurance sub-index also decreased by 1.84 per cent or 105.74 points to 5,650.07 points. Similarly, the hydropower sub-group went down by 1.51 per cent or 21.19 points to land at 1,385.38 points.
Moreover, the banking subgroup declined by 1.18 per cent or 11.87 points to 997.95 points and the development banks sub-index dipped by 0.93 per cent or 13.52 points to 1,403.95 points.
Following the downward trend, the others sub-index also went down by 0.66 per cent or 4.72 points to 707.87 points and the finance subgroup too decreased by 0.6 per cent or 3.59 points to land at 599.57 points.
Altogether, 781,560 shares of 162 companies that amounted to Rs 250 million were traded through 4,176 transactions today.
Meanwhile, share price of Arambha Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha and Salt Trading Corporation rose by more than three per cent to Rs 752 and Rs 290, respectively today. Among the top losers, Multipurpose Finance Company’s share price went down by 10 per cent to Rs 225.
Written by Sandeep
This news first appeared on https://thehimalayantimes.com/business/nepse-index-down-to-31-month-low/ under the title “Nepse index down to 31-month low”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
