NEPSE Markets Daily Recap August 21, 2026: NEPSE falls 0.40% to lowest level in two weeks

Markets Today

NEPSE closed at 2,618.72, down 10.67 points (‑0.40%). Yesterday's recovery lasted exactly one session, and the index has now closed below Wednesday's 2,622.22 giving back everything from Thursday's 21-point reversal off the low.

The breadth collapsed again: 72 advanced against 199 declined, 11 unchanged. An A/D of 0.36 against Thursday's 1.01. Nearly three declines for every advance.

Thursday's report noted that breadth crossing parity for the first time in a week was the most constructive combination of the coverage period, but flagged that the technical scan had not confirmed it. The scan was right and the price wasn't.

And this is the important part: it happened on the heaviest participation of the entire fortnight.

• 59,805 transactions the highest count of the coverage period, up 24.8% on Thursday's 47,919

• 1.00 crore units traded, up from 95.01 lakh

• Rs 4.17 arab turnover

More people, more trades, more shares and 199 of 344 scrips fell.

Better still, today's turnover figure is clean. No ADBLB87. The debenture placement that ran Rs 50.65 crore through the tape on Thursday, Tuesday and last Friday did not appear. Total block value was Rs 4.03 arab across 58,380 transactions, and the largest single block of the day was PCBLP at just Rs 1.47 crore, the smallest "largest block" of the entire coverage period. The top five blocks together totalled Rs 6.71 crore: PCBLP (Rs 1.47 Cr), SOHL (Rs 1.44 Cr) and RSML three times (Rs 1.39 Cr, Rs 1.33 Cr, Rs 1.08 Cr).

Compare that to Thursday, where four ADBLB87 tranches alone were Rs 40.52 crore.

So Rs 4.17 arab is entirely real equity turnover, the highest genuine figure of this coverage period, comfortably above Thursday's Rs 3.89 arab ex-debenture and Wednesday's Rs 3.30 arab.

Record participation, record-clean turnover, and an A/D of 0.36. That is not accumulation. That is a lot of people getting out of a lot of positions at once.

Index Snapshot

Turnover: Rs 4.17 arab
Volume: 1.00 crore units
Transactions: 59,805 (+24.8%, highest of coverage)
Scripts traded: 344
Advancers: 72
Decliners: 199
Unchanged: 11

Sectoral Indices Performance

Every sector red except Mutual Fund at +0.03%, which is a rounding error on a fund index.

Hydropower was the worst at ‑0.66%, and the reversal in its internals is severe. Thursday it rose 0.99% with 61 of 111 names up, the third consecutive session of improving breadth (18/90 → 48/57 → 61/46). Today the heatmap is almost entirely red: RIDI ‑1.34%, SOHL ‑1.86%, AKJCL ‑1.72%, NHPC ‑2.28%, LEC ‑1.98%, MEN ‑1.99%, KKHC ‑3.19%, SMHL ‑1.13%, MEHL ‑3.48%, SAHAS ‑1.97%, MEPDL ‑2.96%, BHCL ‑3.38%, UHEWA ‑2.05%, SGHL ‑2.25%, KAHL ‑2.78%.

The green in the sector is limited to SHPC (+2.92%), TAMOR (+0.60%), PHCL (+1.29%), HPPL (+0.18%) and BPCL (+0.76%). Three sessions of building hydro breadth erased in one.

Banking held up best of the real sectors at ‑0.04% — its third consecutive session of flat-to-positive. SBL +0.61%, PCBL +0.42%, NMB +0.33%, LSL +0.32%, MBL +0.40%, ADBL +0.30%, EBL +0.29%, NICA +0.13% against GBIME ‑0.53%, NABIL ‑0.64%, SBI ‑0.49%, NBL ‑0.07%, KBL ‑0.05%. PRVU, NIMB and HBL unchanged. On a day when the broad tape had an A/D of 0.36, banks being essentially flat is genuine relative strength.

Development Bank was second-worst at ‑0.54% on SAPDBL ‑2.09%, SABBL ‑2.80%, CORBL ‑2.21%, NABBC ‑2.14%, LBBL ‑1.02%. That sector has now been among the weakest for three consecutive sessions.

Finance at ‑0.43% is split: CFCL +1.51% against GUFL ‑2.80% and BFC ‑1.66%. CFCL rising 1.51% after a long run of declines is one of the few reversals on the board.

Market Breadth

A/D ratio 0.36. The series across the coverage: 0.32 → 0.51 → 0.99 → 0.70 → 1.66 → 0.67 → 0.35 → 0.32 → 0.79 → 1.01 → 0.36.

Note the pattern in that series. Every reading above 0.79 has been followed within one or two sessions by a reading below 0.40. The 1.66 on 13 August was followed by 0.67; the 1.01 yesterday was followed by 0.36 today. Breadth in this market has not held above parity for two consecutive sessions once in the entire fortnight.

Technical scan: 4,715 signals, 1,050 bullish (22.27%) against 1,791 bearish (37.99%).

The scan actually improved slightly on a red day — bullish up from 21.86% to 22.27%, bearish down from 39.58% to 37.99%, gap narrowing from 17.7 to 15.7 points. That is the second consecutive session of the gap narrowing.

But the gap is still 15.7 points, versus 11.7 at its best on 14 August, and bullish share has now spent four straight sessions between 21.6% and 22.3%, the lowest sustained band of the entire coverage. The scan is not confirming a base; it is grinding sideways at depressed levels.

Winners & Losers

Top Gainers

Only ten names on the entire board gained more than 1.8%. Excluding the two circuit prints, the best real move was +5.51%.

SAPIL closed limit-up for a seventh consecutive session, at 797.60. Its run: 396.70 → 456.20 → 524.60 → 603.20 → 693.60 → 797.60. That is +101% in six sessions on daily volumes that have been running between 60 and 190 units. Still a listing artifact, but the price is now more than double the debut.

MEPDL, the other new listing, finally broke. After six consecutive limit-ups it closed at 774.00, down 2.96% and it did so on enough turnover to make the top ten by value. Thursday it took the highest transaction count on the exchange (2,854) at +14.99%. The streak is over, and it broke on the first red day it faced.

HATHY is the day's genuine reversal. It rose 4.99% to 610.00 after four consecutive declines totalling ‑14.3% (‑3.60%, ‑5.16%, ‑2.54%, ‑3.68%). It is the only name on the board to break a multi-session losing run today.

SHPC held its Thursday gain +4.05% yesterday, +2.92% today to 529.00 and it was fourth by turnover. In a sector where nearly everything reversed, SHPC extending is notable, and it is now the only hydro name with two consecutive meaningful gains.

Top Losers

BHCL the last standing breakout has broken. This report tracked it for five sessions as the only name on the exchange that had not surrendered a multi-day gain: +6.86% → +8.22% → ‑0.36% → +2.90%, cumulatively +18.7%. Thursday it slipped, and today it fell 3.38% to 541.00.

From its 568.00 close on Wednesday it is down 4.8%. That makes it the tenth consecutive failed breakout of this coverage period following Investment's sector surge, GHL, SKHL, ULHC, CORBL, UHEWA, KKHC, RSML and MEHL.

There is now no name on this exchange holding a multi-session gain. Not one, across a full fortnight.

KKHC fell a fifth session in six: +10.09% (14 Aug) → ‑6.33% → ‑9.67% → ‑0.84% → ‑5.97% → ‑3.19% to 269.90. Down 23.4% from Friday's 352.30 and it was again among the highest-volume names on the way down. Thursday's report called it "the clearest short-side tell on the board." It has not had a green session since.

MEHL is down three straight: ‑8.45%, ‑3.47%, ‑3.48% to 241.30. From 282.90 on Tuesday, that is ‑14.7% in three sessions.

Microfinance supplied three of the ten worst: DLBS, GBLBS and MLBBL and the sector fell 0.44%. That unwind, first flagged on 11 August with MLBSL's limit-down, has now been running for two weeks.

ECL fell 3.57% to 1,400.10, giving back Wednesday's bounce and then some. Its arc across the fortnight: 1,665 → 1,584 → 1,529.90 → 1,575 → 1,400.10.

Turnover & Volume Leaders

Most active by volume: RIDI (359.90, ‑1.34%), SOHL (686.00, ‑1.86%), SHPC (529.00, +2.92%), AKJCL (348.90, ‑1.72%), TAMOR (484.70, +0.60%), NHPC (265.80, ‑2.28%), LEC (217.30, ‑1.98%), MEN (626.30, ‑1.99%), KKHC (269.90, ‑3.19%), SMHL (517.00, ‑1.13%).

Eight of the top ten by turnover closed red, and eight of the top ten by volume. On Thursday, nine of ten turnover leaders closed green. That inversion in a single session, on the highest transaction count of the coverage, is the day in one number.

Every name that led Thursday's rally reversed:

Nine of Thursday's ten turnover leaders are flat or lower. SHPC is the only one that extended.

SAHAS has now given back its accumulation. It was the cleanest print on the board on Wednesday (Rs 17.53 crore, closed one rupee off the high), held Thursday at +1.14%, and fell 1.97% today to 695.00 below its Wednesday close of 701.00.

RSML is holding better than most. Down just 0.32% to 2,775.00 and still the top turnover name, after Monday's block-driven +11.17% and Thursday's genuine +2.73% on 987 trades. It has three of the day's top five blocks (Rs 1.39 Cr, Rs 1.33 Cr, Rs 1.08 Cr) small by the standards of this fortnight, but the only name attracting repeat institutional tickets.

Bulk/block activity: Rs 4.03 arab across 58,380 blocks, average deal size Rs 69,099, the lowest of the entire coverage period, down from Rs 91,092 on Thursday and Rs 97,730 on Monday. Largest single block: PCBLP at Rs 1.47 crore, 11:50:11 AM. Top five by quantity: SIGS3 (327,601 and 42,000), PCBLP (142,796), NSIF2 (100,000), KDBY (51,300).

The average deal size is the tell. Rs 69,099 against Rs 91,092 yesterday means the record transaction count was made up of much smaller tickets. More trades, smaller size, falling prices, retail selling into a market where the large tickets have stepped back.

Previous Session Recap: Thursday, 20 August

NEPSE rose 7.17 points (+0.27%) to 2,629.40, making a new low of 2,608.39 in the first hour before reversing to close 0.16 points off its high. Breadth crossed parity at 163 up / 161 down (A/D 1.01), the first reading above 1.0 since 13 August. Hydropower rose 0.99% on breadth of 61 up / 46 down, its third consecutive session of improving internals, with ten large-turnover names rising together. Banks posted a second green session at 13 up / 6 down.

Headline turnover was Rs 4.40 arab including ADBLB87's Rs 50.65 crore on five transactions; equity turnover was Rs 3.89 arab, up 18.1%. Nine of the top ten turnover names closed green. The technical scan did not confirm, at 21.86% bullish.

Two-week context: the eleven sessions from 7 to 21 August: 2,650.08 → 2,641.06 → 2,641.85 → 2,642.40 → 2,651.21 → 2,643.83 → 2,641.82 → 2,622.48 → 2,622.22 → 2,629.40 → 2,618.72. Net ‑31.36 points, ‑1.18%. Today's close is the lowest of the entire stretch.

Top Stories in Nepal

• SEBON moves to build a multi-product capital market. This follows Thursday's report that the regulator was preparing new market products amid broker pressure for legal reform. Together with the short-selling signal from early August and the primary-market reform task force, SEBON now has at least three structural workstreams running simultaneously. For a market that has only ever had one direction available to it, product diversification is the single most consequential medium-term policy item on the table but none of it has a stated timeline.

• Government moves ahead with a new PPA process. This lands directly on hydropower, which took roughly half of daily turnover through this entire fortnight and closed as today's worst sector. It also arrives in the same week as NEA's 43% profit decline and roughly Rs 115 billion of fresh bank lending committed to Tila-1 (Rs 44.55bn, NMB leading) and Tila-2 (Rs 70.07bn, Everest leading). PPA terms are the mechanism that determines whether that lending gets repaid. Any change to the process is a direct input to hydro sector earnings and to bank asset quality watch for the detail.

• NRB to collect Rs 85 billion from BFIs. A liquidity absorption of this size is material for a market where turnover has been running Rs 3.3–4.4 arab a day. Money pulled out of the banking system is money that is not available to fund margin, broker float, or retail buying. On a day with the highest transaction count of the fortnight and an A/D of 0.36, this is worth watching as a possible contributor.

• Siddhartha Bank launches an online business account.

• DDC ghee enters the Dubai market.

Corporate Actions & Events

RNLI fell 0.49% today after +1.78% Thursday and ‑1.08% Wednesday. Three consecutive sessions of movement in a name that was inert for a week, with the Shrawan 30 lock-in release now imminent.

What to Watch

2,618.72 is the lowest close of the entire coverage period. The index has now closed below Wednesday's 2,622.22 and below Tuesday's 2,622.48. The 2,608–2,610 zone that held twice this week is roughly ten points below. The broken 2,629–2,633 floor is now firmly overhead, and Thursday's attempt to reclaim it failed within a session.

The record participation is the thing to sit with. 59,805 transactions is the highest of the fortnight, on clean turnover of Rs 4.17 arab, genuinely the largest real equity figure of this stretch with an average block ticket of Rs 69,099, the smallest of the coverage. That combination means a large number of small sellers were active. A market that finds its highest-ever participation on a day with an A/D of 0.36 is distributing, not basing.

Breadth has not held above parity two sessions running, once, in a fortnight. 1.66 → 0.67. 1.01 → 0.36. Until two consecutive sessions print above 1.0, every green day should be treated as a one-day event. That is now an eleven-session record with no exceptions.

Ten consecutive failed breakouts, and BHCL was the last one standing. There is no name on this exchange currently holding a multi-session gain. SHPC (+4.05%, +2.92%) is the only candidate for the eleventh attempt, it is the sole name that extended a Thursday gain into Friday. If it fails Sunday, the pattern is unbroken across a full fortnight.

Hydropower's three-session breadth recovery was erased in one. 18/90 → 48/57 → 61/46 → almost entirely red. The sector closed as the day's worst at ‑0.66%, and it did so in the same week the government moved on a new PPA process, NEA reported a 43% profit decline, and banks committed Rs 115 billion of fresh project lending. The fundamental backdrop and the tape are now telling the same story.

NRB pulling Rs 85 billion from BFIs. Watch turnover next week. If the liquidity absorption bites, the record participation seen today will not repeat, and the market's problem shifts from breadth to volume.

The technical scan narrowed for a second session gap 15.7 points from 17.7 but bullish share has now spent four sessions stuck between 21.6% and 22.3%, the lowest sustained band of the coverage. The scan improved for four straight days into 14 August and the market then broke down; it is not a reliable standalone signal. But it has not confirmed a base, and nothing else has either.