KATHMANDU: The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index declined by double digits on Monday, the first trading day of the week. Following fluctuations throughout the day, the index finally closed down by 26.29 points. The total trading turnover also decreased compared to the previous day.

The benchmark index dropped 0.99 percent compared to the previous trading day to close at 2627.11 points.

The sensitive index also fell by 3.53 points to close at 456.27 points, marking a 0.76 percent decline. Similarly, the float index and the sensitive float index dropped by 0.95 percent and 0.86 percent, respectively.

A total of 7,540,418 shares of 356 companies changed hands 46,246 times on Monday, resulting in a total turnover of Rs 3.55 billion.

Only 34 companies saw an increase in their share prices, while 239 companies recorded losses and four remained unchanged. All 13 sub-indices turned red as the market closed down across the board.

According to the data, the commercial bank sub-index dropped 1.06 percent, development bank 0.30 percent, finance 1.24 percent, hotels and tourism 0.78 percent, hydropower 0.98 percent, investment 0.72 percent, and life insurance 0.69 percent. Similarly, manufacturing and processing fell 1.17 percent, microfinance 0.89 percent, mutual fund 0.35 percent, non-life insurance 0.98 percent, others 0.52 percent, and the trading sub-index registered the highest decline of 3.15 percent.

Despite the market downturn, investors of Snow Rivers Limited and Sanigad Hydro Limited gained the maximum of 14.99 percent each. Conversely, investors of Threestar hydropower limited lost the most, with its share price dropping by 13.79 percent.

In terms of monetary turnover, NIMB debenture topped the chart with transactions worth Rs 539.45 million.

The same debenture also led in terms of the number of traded shares, with 486,043 units changing hands. Its final trading price stood at 1110 rupees per unit.