KATHMANDU, Feb 20: Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) on Monday plunged 23.60 points to close at 2,046.81 points.

With the government announcing a public holiday on Sunday, the secondary market opened at 2,070.41 points on the first trading day of the week.  It went to a straight fall throughout most of the day before it fell to as low as 2,040.63 points. However, the market recovered by six points in the last 15 minutes of the day’s trading. 

In the intraday trading, 177 companies lost their market value, while 32 companies registered in the gainers’ lists. The sensitive index that measures the performance of blue chip companies also fell 4.91 points.

The daily turnover also stood at only Rs 1.94 billion, which, however, was more than Rs 1.684 billion recorded on Thursday.

Except mutual funds and trading, all the rest of the 11 groups lost in their average market values. While manufacturing and processing and microfinance lost three-digit points, the majority of the losers shed double digit points in their market indices.

Among individual companies, Himalayan Distillery Limited had the biggest transaction amount of its shares worth Rs 208.25 million. Jeevan Bikas Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha led the row of the topmost losers, whereas Rapti Hydro and General Construction Limited secured the largest percent gain in its market prices.  

 
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