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The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) last week declined 49.70 points (1.75 percent) after the government grilled a number of big investors of the secondary market who are accused of embezzling people’s money.

With a decline of 13.17 points, the secondary market opened for trading at a negative note on Monday. On the following three consecutive days, the index dropped 17.91 points, 2.95 points and 17.01 points, respectively. The market recorded a modest gain of 1.54 percent on Friday, closing for the week’s trading.

The manufacturing and processing sector by adding 16.88 points, was the single gainer. Life insurance declined by 229.94 points and was the largest loser. Percentage-wise, others’ index plunged by the highest of 3.54 percent.

Along with the NEPSE index, the average daily turnover declined to Rs 5.87 billion from Rs 8.99 billion, marking a heavy fall of 34.65 percent. Among individual companies, the share price of Palpa Cement Industries jumped by 101.08 percent, the highest among all. Likewise, Dolti Power Company lost 14.92 percent of its market value.

Market capitalization decreased to Rs 4.756 trillion from Rs 4.841 trillion, making the investors face a loss of Rs 85 billion of their book values. In the previous week, investors secured capital gains of Rs 165 billion.