KATHMANDU: The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) decreased by 5.73 points today (Thursday), the fourth trading day of the week.

Following a 0.20% decline compared to the previous trading day, the NEPSE index settled at 2,738.72 points. The sensitive index also fell by 0.07 points to close at 464.43 points, representing a 0.01% decrease from the previous day. Similarly, the float index dropped by 0.15 points and the sensitive float index by 0.00%.

On Thursday, at least 10,977,783 shares were traded through 80,427 transactions involving 346 companies. Consequently, the market turnover reached Rs 4.916 billion on Thursday.

Trading volumes earlier in the week included Rs 4.748 billion on Monday, Rs 6.531 billion on Tuesday, and Rs 4.986 billion on Wednesday.

Share prices of only 98 companies increased today, while 161 companies saw a decline and 10 remained stable. Out of the 13 sub-indices traded, only two sectors saw gains while the remaining 11 declined.

The Commercial Bank group index rose by 0.02%, while the Development Bank fell by 0.48%, Finance by 0.20%, Hotel and Tourism by 0.04%, Hydropower by 0.40%, Investment by 0.42%, and Life Insurance by 0.26%.

Furthermore, the Manufacturing and Processing sub-index increased by 0.84%. Conversely, microfinance decreased by 0.34%, mutual funds by 0.52%, non-life insurance by 0.02%, others by 0.97%, and trading by 0.63%.

Investors of Srinagar Agrotech Industries earned a return of 12.57% on Thursday. In contrast, investors of the Corporate Development Bank lost 10.38% of their share value.

Reliance Spinning Mills topped the market in terms of turnover, recording trades worth Rs 267.5 million today.

Regarding the number of shares traded, National Hydropower Company led the market. On Thursday, at least 669,730 of its shares were exchanged, with its final trading price maintained at Rs 296 per share.