The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) edged down on Tuesday, the third trading day of the week, as the benchmark index shed 12.58 points following a marginal gain on Monday.

The index fell by 0.46 per cent to close at 2,683.15 points, reflecting continued cautious sentiment among investors.

Of the traded companies, share prices of 66 firms advanced, while 190 declined and three remained unchanged, indicating broad-based selling pressure in the market.

A total of 18.7 million shares were traded through 92,338 transactions, with the total turnover reaching Rs8.63 billion. Trading value increased compared to Monday, when shares worth Rs8.22 billion were exchanged.

Among the 13 sub-indices, hotel and tourism, production and processing, and mutual funds posted gains. However, declines in the remaining sub-groups pulled the overall index down into negative territory.