Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) dipped 11.94 points to close at 1,617.81 points last week, as the aftermath of the floods that affected many parts of the country continue to dent investors’ demand.

The secondary market that opened at 1,629.75 points on Sunday lost 11.78 points to close at 1,617.97 points. On Monday, the market slid 6.4 points to close at 1,611.57 points.

The market however gained 2.48 points on Tuesday before falling again by 2.78 points on Wednesday. On Thursday, the market closed on a happy note by adding 6.54 points in its index. As a result, the overall market index declined 0.73 percent over the week.

Santosh Mainali, managing director of Secured Securities attributed the fall in Nepse index to the flood that deluged large plots of land in the Tarai belt of the country. “Due to the calamities, the secondary market has been witnessing a notable fall in stock demand,” Mainali said.

According to Mainali, the market last week was also affected by NRB’s unified directive. “With the fear that the directive again will prevent the interest rate from stepping down, the investors rushed to sell the stocks they hold,” Mainali said. “However, NRB coming up with relaxation in the provision through its second notice again buoyed the investors in the secondary market.”

The sensitive index that measures the performance of Group ‘A’ companies also declined 2.4 points to close at 339.94 points with a fall in index of commercial banks along with majority of other trading groups.

With a fall in the market index, the average value of the shares listed in stock market also went down Rs4.39 billion with market capitalisation reaching Rs1,907.37 billion from Rs1,911.76 billion over the week.

Of the nine trading groups, seven posted loss in their indices. Insurance lost 54.31 points, the largest of all, to close at 9,187.67 points. Mainali termed the fall as a correction in insurance segment.

Manufacturing posted the second largest loss, with the group shedding 34.8 points to close at 2,593.91 points. It was followed by hotels (29.77 points), commercial banks (15 points), development banks (13.17 points), finance companies (7 points) and hydropower (5.95 points). 

‘Others’ was the only gainer over the review period. The group added up 10.41 points in the index to close at 723.91 points. Trading was stable at 214.11 points throughout the week.

Of the individual companies with the largest transaction amount, Prime Life Insurance led the segment. The company witnessed its shares transaction of Rs197.58 million. Mainali said the insurer’s declaration of 25 percent bonus shares and 160 percent right shares to its shareholders had been able to attract investors.

Nepal Bank Limited, with a transaction of its stocks worth Rs145.82 million, was in second position. Likewise, Nepal Life Insurance, Citizens Bank International and Siddhartha Investment Growth Scheme 1 were also among the top five companies with largest turnover at the secondary market.

Likewise, Siddhartha Investment Growth Scheme 1 topped in terms of number of transaction as 3,623,000 units of shares exchanged hands.

Last week, the shares of 175 listed companies were traded. Despite a fall in Nepse, the transaction amount increased 8.45 percent to Rs3.31 billion. The traded number of shares also increased to 1,004,830,880 from 8,446,460 units.