Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) last week shed 25.41 points to close at 1,794.47 points as investors’ participation remained low after a long holiday of Dashain. Also, the investors remained reluctant to invest at a time when most of the listed companies are done with their book closure.

The secondary market that opened at 1,819.88 points on Sunday, the first trading

day after Dashain, declined 16.14 points to close at 1,803.74 points. On Monday, the market rose 10.38 points to reach 1,793.36 points. On Tuesday

and Wednesday, the index shed 0.63 points and 4.84 points, respectively, before gaining

6.58 points on Thursday to close the week 1.39 percent lower.

“Investors are usually not interested in investing following the Dashain holiday,” said Stockbroker Anjan Raj Poudel. “Also, as most of the companies have already declared dividends with their book closure before Dashain, the investors rushed to sell their stocks.”

Along with the Nepse index, the sensitive index that

measures the performance of group ‘A’ companies also slipped 5.89 points to 389.24 points, while the value of shares listed on the exchange declined by Rs27.64 billion to Rs1,988.69 billion.

Of the nine trading groups, indices of seven plunged.

The hotels sub-index lost 130.24 points, the highest, to 2,347.66 points. It was followed by

insurance companies (down 63.9 points) commercial

banks (down 31.05 points), finance companies (down 17.56 points), development banks (down 15.48 points), manufacturing (down 13.91 points) and others (down 6.37 points).

The hydropower sub-index, up 8.41 points, was the sole

gainer last week, while the trading group was non-mover at 202.79 points.

Last week, Kumari Bank posted biggest turnover of Rs386.28 million. Bank of Kathmandu Lumbini stood second with Rs195.7 million. Shikhar Insurance, Everest Bank and Jyoti Bikas Bank rounded out the top five.

Poudel attributed the rise in Kumari’s turnover to approaching book close which attracted investors. The bank also topped in terms of the number shares traded (628,000 units).

Last week, shares of 149 listed companies were traded. Along with the fall in Nepse index, the turnover amount also declined 34.31percent to Rs3.12 billion, while the number of shares traded was down to 3,888,200 units from 5,511,360.

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