KATHMANDU: On the fifth and final trading day of the week, today (Friday), the Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index increased by a marginal amount. Throughout this week, the NEPSE saw gains only on Monday and Friday, while it trended downward on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Despite the rise in the index today, the total turnover amount decreased.

The NEPSE increased by 1.77 points today. On the previous trading day, Thursday, the index had decreased by 10.07 points. Similarly, it had dropped by 4.15 points on Wednesday and 39.44 points on Tuesday. On Monday, however, the NEPSE had risen by 38.19 points.

Closing at 2,731.94 points, the index rose by 0.06 percent compared to the previous trading day. The Sensitive Index also increased by 0.34 points to close at 467.55, an increase of 0.07 percent compared to the previous day. Likewise, the float index increased by 0.02 percent, and the sensitive float index rose by 0.05 percent.

In the stock market on Friday, a total of 7,934,434 shares of 338 companies were traded through 43,673 transactions. Accordingly, the turnover reached Rs 3.097 billion.

In comparison, the turnover was Rs 3.29 billion on Thursday. The turnover was Rs 2.807 billion on Wednesday, while it reached Rs 4.665 billion on Tuesday. On Monday, the turnover stood at Rs 4.613 billion.

The share prices of 127 companies increased today, while 120 companies saw a decline and 22 remained stable. Out of the 13 sub-indices traded on the NEPSE today, seven groups saw an increase while the remaining six sub-indices decreased.

According to the data, the Commercial Bank group index rose by 0.13 percent, while the Development Bank group index fell by 0.04 percent.

Similarly, the finance group increased by 0.37 percent, hotel and tourism by 0.28 percent, and the hydropower group index by 0.06 percent. Conversely, the investment group fell by 0.27 percent, life insurance by 0.16 percent, manufacturing and processing by 0.11 percent, microfinance by 0.17 percent, and the mutual fund group sub-index by 0.33 percent.

Furthermore, the Non-Life Insurance group rose by 0.64 percent, the others group by 0.19 percent, and the Trading group subindex by 0.33 percent.

On the NEPSE this Friday, investors of NIBL Debenture 2089 earned the most with a 7.71 percent return. Meanwhile, investors of Union Hydropower lost the most as the share price dropped by 14.79 percent.

In terms of turnover, Union Hydropower topped the list with a total transaction of Rs 306.6 million.

Union Hydropower also led the market in terms of the number of shares traded, with 657,030 shares exchanged today. The final trading price for Union was maintained at Rs 455 per share.