KATHMANDU, May 11: Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) lost 33.73 points last week with the delay in the government appointing the chairperson of the Securities Board of Nepal and Nepal Rastra Bank delaying for the third quarterly review of the monetary policy 2023/24.

The market opened at 1,998.96 points on Sunday and closed at 1,966.23 points on Thursday. The market went as high as 1,998.52 points while it plunged to as low as 1,952.96 points, witnessing volatility of 45.56 points.

In the review period, the market escalated for three days. It started the week with a drastic fall of 24.58 points on Sunday. The index declined further by 15.62 points on Monday. In the consecutive two days, the market increased marginally 2.06 points on Tuesday, followed by a nominal fall of 0.21 points on Wednesday. The secondary market closed for the week by gaining 5.63 points on Thursday. 

Only two groups including hotels and tourism, and microfinance added 222.48 points and 108.01 points, respectively. Of the remaining 11 losing groups, life insurance lost the highest of 331.34 points. Manufacturing and processing, and non-life insurance also shed three-digit points in their market value.

Among individual companies, Nepal Finance Limited held the largest transaction of its shares worth Rs 495.74 million. Sun Nepal Life Insurance Company lost the highest of 138.00 points (23.27 percent), while Samata Gharelu Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited gained the highest of 15.82 percent of its market price.

The total turnover amount declined to Rs 14.49 billion from Rs 14.57 billion in the previous week. The average daily turnover also decreased to Rs 2.89 billion from Rs 3.64 billion.

The market capitalization also declined to Rs 3.117 trillion from Rs 3.169 trillion in the previous week. It made the shares investors lose Rs 52 billion in their portfolios.