KATHMANDU, Feb. 29 -- Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) on Thursday nosedived 28.68 points to close at 1972.09 points.

The market opened at 2,000.77 points and reached the day's high at 2,007.57 points in the first 10 minutes of trading. The market then went downhill successively and hit the day's low at 1,970.53 points till the last 10 minutes. The index recovered around two points in the remaining period before the market closed for the day.

The sensitive index that measures the performance of 'A' class companies declined 4.79 points. The daily turnover slightly increased to Rs 2.598 billion from Rs 2.038 billion on Wednesday.

All the 13 groups were the losers. Life insurance, and hotels and tourism lost three-digit points of 131.98 point...