Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) today lost a historic 46.13 points – or five per cent – to close the market at 875.56 points.

The stock market today also attracted circuit breaker thrice – halting the trading for 15 minutes, half an hour and suspending the trading for the day – as it lost three per cent – immediately after the market opened – four per cent one hour before the trading closed, and five per cent four minutes before 3:00, the time to close the day’s trading.

It is also the first time in last three months that the stock market has dropped below 900 points. The index had crossed the 900-point mark on June 13 and continued to look up to 1,083 points on July 21.

But, the market has lost more than 200 points over the last one month.

Though, there was no logical ground for the fall, the small investors panicked and starting selling stocks fearing continued downfall.

Though, the drop in the stock market is attributed to central bank’s cap on banks and financial institutions investment in shares, the big players are suspected to have started cornering the stocks.

The demand for bank stocks should have gone up pushing the Nepse up as they have started declaring their dividends, but fall in hydropower and insurance companies stock prices pulled the market down.

The hydropower sub-group lost 170.15 points to close at 2,313.42 points, nsurance sub-group lost 161.22 points and and the banking group lost 52.59 points to to rest at 775.83 points and to pull the stock market down.

However, the others subgroup went down by 17.62 points with the stock price of Nepal Telecom losing by Rs 15 per unit today.

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