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The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 18. 42 points to close at 2,010.35 points on Sunday.

Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 3. 10 points to close at 385. 62 points.

A total of 9,003,941-unit shares of 285 companies were traded for Rs 2. 23 billion.

Meanwhile, Swarojgar Laghu Bitta Bikas Bank Ltd,  Himalayan Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited and Asian Hydropower Limited were the top gainers today with their price surging by 10. 00 percent.

Likewise, Shuvam Power Limited was the top loser with its price dropped by 10. 90 percent.

At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 3. 04 trillion.

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The price of gold has increased by Rs 100 per tola in the domestic market on Sunday.

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the precious yellow metal is being traded at Rs 112, 200 per tola today. It was traded at Rs 112, 100 per tola on Friday.

Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 111, 650 per tola. It was traded at Rs 111, 550 per tola.

Similarly, the silver is being traded at Rs 1,430 per tola today.

Jumbahadur Budhathoki Magar (73) from Nisikhola Rural Municipality-5 of Baglung district has an apple orchard with 200 trees of both local and Italian species.

He had sold 15 quintals of apples last year, but the production slumped this time. The apple production declined sharply because hailstone occurred last March and April. Now, the orchard wears a dreary look.

Magar had been doing traditional apple farming since 2048 BS. He has the farm in 15 ropani of land at Masgaon. Although the Italian species of apple which began two years back gave good yield last year, it witnessed a slump this time. "I had planned to sell 20 to 25 quintals of apples this year, but in vain," he said, adding that hailstone damaged it in the beginning of the flowering season.

Even the farmers at Niseldhor area are worried over the meager product. With this, some of them have shifted to potato farming.

Magar had planted 200 saplings of Italian species of apple. He explained, "After I became Chairman of Dhorpatan Apple Bloc, we began collective apple farming. I'm leading the apple farmers of Neseldhoka as well. The Italian species of apple gave a good harvest last year, but the hailstone damaged it during flowering this year."

Although the farmers here were not attracted to apple farming because of snow, and rains in the Dhorpatan area, the Agriculture Knowledge Centre encouraged them to opt for it after successful test production of Italian species of apple.

Earlier, Dhorpatan valley, Sentung, Shyalpakhe, Niseldhor and Mas were conducting traditional farming, but at a minimum scale.

Farmer from Dhorpatan-9, Ram Bahadur Gharti, informed that he also had a good harvest from 181 trees last year. But the production declined much this time.

With news of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) lifting the Rs 120m cap on margin lending doing the rounds, the stock market saw a 44.34-point surge on Thursday.

Investors are expecting a relaxation of the margin lending provision by the central bank after the meeting of the financial sector high-level coordination committee on Tuesday.

The daily turnover at the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) also rose to almost two months high with total turnover reaching Rs 3.29bn on Thursday. 

Along with the daily turnover, the Nepse also saw a surge in volume. The number of shares traded also hit a two-month high. A total of 11.26m units of shares were traded on Thursday. The last time, the volume was higher than that of Thursday, was on July 24 when 20.97m shares were traded. 

The domestic stock market has been on a downward spiral after the central bank unveiled a new monetary policy in the last week of July, with the Nepse index down by more than 190 points. 

Of late, the central bank is under tremendous pressure on the NRB to lift the Rs 120m cap. The private sector, stock investors, and Finance Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat himself have been urging Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari to review margin lending provisions. Finance Minister Mahat, during Tuesday’s meeting, asked Governor Adhikari to facilitate the stock market to increase economic activities. 

Finance Minister Mahat and Governor Adhikari had also met on Monday in which discussion was centered on adopting some flexibility in monetary policy to increase economic activities.

While the stock investors were hoping that the central bank through monetary policy 2023/24 would relax the margin lending provisions, the central bank only reduced the risk weightage on margin loans. That too for marginal loans up to Rs 5m only. The NRB reduced the risk weightage of margin loans up to Rs 5m from 150 percent to 100 percent. However, the risk weightage of margin loans above Rs 5m remained untouched by the NRB.