KATHMANDU, July 15: Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) on Monday declined by 17.18 points after investors rushed to book their profits out of the gains from the past few days.

The secondary market opened at 2,257.59 points and closed at 2,240.41 points. Initially, the index escalated to the day’s high at 2,288.17 points in the first two minutes. However, the market nosedived in the next 45 minutes to hit the day’s low at 2,232.09 points. The market recovered around eight points in the remaining period before it closed for the day.  

The sensitive index that measures the performance of ‘A’ class companies declined 4.07 points. The daily turnover surged to Rs 8.73 billion from Rs 7.62 billion on Sunday.

Four groups including hydropower, manufacturing and processing, investment, and mutual funds were the gainers. Of the nine losers, life insurance and non-life insurance lost three-digit values of 180.99 points and 102.74 points, respectively.

Among individual companies, 56 were recorded as gainers and 184 as losers.

Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Ltd had the largest turnover of its shares worth Rs 370.87 million. Janaki Finance Company Limited was the biggest loser, while Civil Bank Debenture 2088 was recorded as the biggest gainer.