KATHMANDU: On the fourth trading day of the week today (Thursday), the Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) continued its downward trend. This marks the fourth consecutive day this week that the market has declined.

Today, NEPSE fell by 17.01 points to settle at 2,787.15 points. This is 0.60 percent lower than the previous trading day. The Sensitive Index also decreased by 2.94 points, closing at 468.27 points, a drop of 0.62 percent. Additionally, the float index fell by 0.70 percent, and the sensitive float index declined by 0.72 percent.

In the share market on Thursday, 11,375,699 unit shares of 348 companies were traded through 93,907 transactions. Accordingly, a turnover of Rs 5.095 billion was recorded on Thursday. In comparison, the turnover was Rs 5.434 billion on Monday, Rs 5.774 on Tuesday, and Rs 7.813 billion on Wednesday.

The share prices of only 46 companies increased today, while 216 companies saw a decline and seven remained stable. Out of the 13 sectors traded on NEPSE today, the sub-indices of three groups increased while ten groups declined.

Specifically, the Commercial Bank group index fell by 0.77 percent, the Development Bank by 0.08 percent, Finance by 1.06 percent, Hotel and Tourism by 1.42 percent, Hydropower by 1.05 percent, Investment by 0.53 percent, and Life Insurance by 0.43 percent.

Conversely, the Manufacturing and Processing group rose by 0.60 percent, while microfinance fell by 0.53 percent. The mutual fund group increased slightly by 0.05 percent. Non-life insurance dropped by 1.19 percent and the other index by 0.85 percent. The trading group sub-index rose by 0.43 percent.

On Thursday, shareholders of Palpa Cement Industries and Shikhar Power Development earned 14.99 percent. In contrast, investors in Suryakunda Hydro Electric lost 11.79 percent of their share value.

In terms of turnover amount, Reliance Spinning Mills led the market. Today, a turnover of Rs 304.2 million was recorded for Reliance.

Similarly, in terms of the number of shares traded, Prabhu Smart Fund was the leader today. At least 837,300 unit shares of Prabhu were traded on Thursday, with its final trading price maintained at Rs 13.15 per unit.