The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index closed slightly higher on Wednesday, even as overall turnover declined.

The benchmark edged up by 1.37 points compared with the previous day, climbing 0.05 percent to settle at 2,585.87.

Owing to Thursday’s public holiday, Wednesday marked the week’s final trading session. The market logged four trading days this week, with the first two sessions ending in decline and the last two posting gains.

Market breadth, however, remained negative. Out of the companies traded, 111 advanced, 142 declined, and 7 remained unchanged. Despite the higher number of losers, the benchmark managed a modest uptick, indicating that gains in a few companies were strong enough to offset broader weakness.

A total of 62,768 transactions were recorded, involving the exchange of 7,224,917 shares. The day’s turnover stood at Rs3.22 billion—lower than Tuesday’s Rs3.42 billion.

Among the 13 sub-indices, banking, hotels and tourism, manufacturing and processing, mutual funds, non-life insurance and trading posted gains. The remaining sectoral indices ended in negative territory.

Analysts noted that while the index managed a mild rise, declining turnover and broader selling pressure point to subdued investor sentiment as the market heads into the holiday break.