Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index shed 1.99 points, or 0.1 percent, over the week to close at 1404.53 points on Thursday, the last trading day of the week, as demand for shares of insurance, microfinance and hydropower companies fell.

The stock index opened at 1406.52 points on Sunday, the first trading day of the week, and lost 3.85 points to close at 1402.67 points. On Monday, the index took another beating and closed at 1402.09 points, down 0.58 points. The downward spiral continued on Tuesday as well, with the index shedding 9.05 points to close at 1393.04 points. The index made some recovery on Wednesday after three consecutive days of fall. But the gain of 1.69 points was not sufficient to offset the losses made in the previous three days. On Thursday, the market made some more recovery, adding 9.8 points to its index to close at 1404.53 points.

Along with the fall in Nepse index, sensitive index, which tracks trading of Group ‘A’ companies, also slipped 0.45 points over the week to close at 296.41 points on Thursday.

The losses incurred during the review period reduced the value of all the shares listed on Nepse by Rs1.3 billion to Rs1,641.9 billion.

“Investor sentiment has remained weak in the last few weeks because of shortage of funds at banks and financial institutions, which has affected loan disbursements,” a stockbroker said on condition of anonymity. “Unless there is improvement in liquidity situation, volatility will continue in the stock market.”

The biggest loser during the week was the insurance sector. The insurance sub-index opened at 7270.44 points on Sunday and closed at 7193.3 points on Thursday, shedding 77.14 points, or 1.1 percent, over the week.

Another big loser was the microfinance sector, which lost 14.86 points over the week to close at 1687.12 points. 

Other losers were development banking sector, which shed 4.31 points to close at 1566.54 points and hydropower sector, which lost 3.59 points to end the week at 1857.64 points.

Over the week, shares of 177 listed companies were traded on the bourse, generating turnover of Rs1.7 billion, up 54 percent than in the previous week. In terms of trading amount, Sanima Mai Hydropower Limited ended the week at the top spot recording share transaction of Rs160.8 billion. The second position in terms of stock trading amount was secured by Global IME Bank, which registered share transaction of Rs109.8 billion. This was followed by Nabil Bank (Rs60.2 billion), First Microfinancial Development Bank (Rs55.1 billion) and Neco Insurance (Rs45.6 billion).