Nepal Stock Exchange last week lost 4.13 points to close at 1518.12 on Thursday. 

The market that opened at 1522.25 points on Sunday gained 9.87 points till Tuesday before losing 14 points in the last two trading days. The week’s biggest loss came on Wednesday when the benchmark index dropped 8.56 points.

Naveen Adhikari, managing director of Divya Securities and Stock House, said the market was heading towards correction after reaching all-time highs. “When the market reaches an optimum level, investors’ enthusiasm goes down and the demand is less sustainable,” he said.

The insurance sector led the losers’ side, including development banks, commercial banks and finance companies. The trading group was stable at 201.38. The sensitive index that measures the performance of ‘A’ class companies was down by 1.17 points. The transaction volume dropped by 16.63 percent to Rs5.95 billion from Rs7.14 billion.

“The fall in the insurance sector can be attributed to profit booking,” said Rabindra Bhattarai, share analyst. “Investors were less confident as the new budget is silent on increasing paid-up capital of insurance companies and micro-finance companies.”

Nepal Rastra Bank, however, is expected to tell micro-finance institutions to hike their paid-up capital through the new monetary policy. The central bank has been publicly stating about its plan to hike the paid-up capital requirement for MFIs. The Insurance Board has also been planning to hike capital for insurers substantially, but it has failed to materialise this so far.   

Sanima Bank witnessed the highest turnover of Rs418.2 million. It was followed by Citizen Bank and Chilime Hydropower. National Hydropower Company led in terms of the number of shares traded with 1.5 million scripts being traded.

Meanwhile, Nepse listed bonus shares of Sunrise Bank and Chilime Hydropower during the period under review.