Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) last week shed 1.26 points to close at 1,172.78 points, as investors became dismayed by the ongoing problems with the automated online trading software and the government’s decision to make Permanent Account Number mandatory for all investors.

With the market index falling, the average daily turnover also fell to Rs324.26 million from Rs370.40 million in the previous week.

The secondary market that opened at 1,187.76 points on Sunday, slid 8.84 points to close at 1,178.92 points. The market continued its slide on Monday, losing 10.86 points before bouncing back 0.77 points and 4.15 points on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. The market, however, fell slightly by 0.2 points on Thursday.

In overall trading, the market declined by 1.26 percent over the review period.

Stockbrokers said investors lost confidence in making transactions due to niggling problems in the automated online trading system enforced by Nepse. “In addition, the government’s decision to incorporate small investors under the PAN (Permanent Account Number) bracket had adversely dented the attraction in stocks trading for many investors,” said a stockbroker under condition of maintaining anonymity.

The sensitive index that measures the performance of Group ‘A’ companies also declined 2.35 points to close at 248.65 points with a fall in the sub-indices of almost of the trading groups.

With the market slumping, investors lost Rs17.83 billion, as the market capitalisation fell to Rs1,430.80 billion from Rs1,448.63 billion.

Except for trading and finance companies, the remaining nine trading groups took a downturn in their indices. Manufacturing lost the largest of 141.02 points and closed at 2,100.41 points.

The Nepse of hydropower and life-insurance posted dropped double digit losses of 73.85 points and 71.64 points respectively. Commercial banks lost 9.76 points, development banks lost 6.8 points, microfinance lost 6.64 points and ‘others’ lost 4.09 points. The indices of hotels and non-life insurance fell marginally by 2.02 points and 0.91 points respectively.

Of the gainers, Nepse of trading and finance companies inched up by 2.78 points and 1.2 points respectively during the review period.

Among the individual companies, Upper Tamakoshi recorded transaction of its shares worth Rs481.9 million, the largest of all. It was followed by Citizen Investment Trust, Chhimek Laghubitta Bikas Bank, Machhapuchchhre Bank and Prabhu Bank Limited.

Last week, stocks worth Rs1.62 billion were transacted, which was 12.43 percent less than the transaction amount in the previous week. The total number of traded shares also declined to 5,359,753 units from 5,370,379 units.