KATHMANDU, Sept 18: Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) on Wednesday slid four points to close at 2,576.76 points.

The secondary market opened at 2,580.76 points and plunged to the day’s low at 2,552.94 points in the first 20 minutes. The index however escalated to reach the day’s high at 2,605.64 points in the next one and a half hours. In the second half of the trading time, the market lost around 30 points before it closed for the day.

The sensitive index, which measures the performance of ‘A’ class companies, declined marginally by 0.19 points. The daily turnover further decreased to Rs 5.66 billion from Rs 7.36 billion on Monday. The secondary market remained closed on Tuesday due to the government announcing a public holiday to mark ‘Indra Jatra’.

Among individual companies, only 74 were recorded as gainers whereas 163 were losers.

Two out of 13 groups including non-life insurance and banking gained 20.78 points and 11.16 points, respectively. Finance index plunged by the largest of 83.61 points.

CEDB Hydropower Development Company Limited had the biggest turnover of its shares worth Rs 205.80 million. Janautthan Samudayic Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited lost the highest of 7.67 percent of its market price. Kalika Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd added 8.08 percent of its market value, the highest of all.