Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) last week declined by 81 points amid the ongoing political uncertainty.

In three-day trading with the government announcing Sunday and Monday public holidays to mourn the loss of lives due to incessant rains, the secondary market opened at 2,663.51 points on Tuesday, while it closed at 2,582.18 points on Thursday. Overall, the market declined 3.04 percent.

On Tuesday, the market index plunged 58.55 points, which was followed by a notable decline of 45.36 points on Wednesday.

Last week, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) even directed the line government agencies to implement recommendations of a four-member task force led by Rupesh KC, acting executive director of the Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) in a bid to strengthen the performance of Nepal’s secondary market. Likewise, Nepal Rastra Bank also announced to remove the ceiling of Rs 250 million on share investment amount, which the secondary market responded positively and the index escalated 22.59 points.

There was a heavy decline in market values of scrips of hotels and ‘other’ groups. Hotels and tourism fell by 4.79 percent and ‘other’ group by 5.79 percent. With a decline of inflow of tourists after September 8 protests of Gen Z, the share prices of hotels and tourism in particular were affected largely.

Similarly, in ‘other’ groups, two companies Nepal Reinsurance and Himalayan Reinsurance were among the most affected ones. Insurance and reinsurance companies have withstood high financial liabilities due to damages of physical infrastructure by the recent protests.

In terms of the individual companies, NIC Asia Debenture’s price increased by the largest of 9.11 percent. The share price of Bhugol Energy Development Company declined by the highest of 14.8 percent.

The total turnover was recorded at Rs 15.65 billion while the average daily turnover stood at Rs 5.21 billion.

In the review period, the market capitalization has declined to Rs 4.316 trillion from Rs 4.354 trillion. This made the investors face a loss of Rs 38 billion.