The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) continued its downward movement on Monday, losing 4.28 points after a sharp decline of nearly 26.5 points the previous day.

The benchmark index dipped by 0.16 percent to close at 2,645.24 points. Market sentiment remained subdued as a higher number of companies recorded losses despite a broad-based rise in trading activity.

A total of 224 companies saw their share prices increase, while 126 declined and 8 remained unchanged. However, the overall index fell as the number of losing stocks outweighed the gainers.

Market turnover also weakened. Shares worth Rs4.71 billion were traded through 60,620 transactions, involving 10.86 million units. This compares with Sunday’s turnover of Rs7.08 billion.

Among the 13 sectoral indices, banking, investment, hotels and tourism, life insurance, mutual funds, others, and trading closed lower. The remaining sectors posted marginal gains.