Investors float plan to rescue Nepse

KATHMANDU, Feb 15: Share investors have urged political leaders to come up with the plan to rescue Nepal´s capital market which is witnessing slowdown for more than a year.



Presenting the present condition of share market to Bharat Mohan Adhikari, former finance minister and a senior UML leader, they proposed immediate and long-term measures to boost the morale of investors, who are worried about the fate of stock market and are shifting to other sectors of investments. [break]



Immediate measures floated by the investors include loan facility worth 70 percent of the total value of shares, margin lending as per the value of shares, provision that allows banks to invest 25 percent of the total investment portfolio in share lending, suspend process to transfer 19 percent promoters shares to ordinary shares and provision of Permanent Account Number (PAN) to those having transaction of over Rs10 million.



Under the long-term strategies to rejuvenate the slowing stock market, they demanded that the government set multiple rates for capital gains tax depending on investment period, set ratio of promoter shares and ordinary shares in 51:49 ratio and formulate policy on capital market after extensive deliberation with stakeholders. They also demanded timely issue of rights and bonus shares since after the approval by board of directors.



They also urged the government to immediately expedite the process of appointing new stockbrokers.



Frustrated by the continued slowdown in stock market, investors have already apprised the Finance Minister, Chairman of Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON), and acting governor of Nepal Rastra Bank about their demands.



Nepse sheds 4.22 points



Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index dropped by 0.85 percent or 4.22 points to close at 493.02 points on Monday, thanks to loss in sub-index of major trading groups. Banking sub-index fell by 2.1 points to close at 462.76 points.



Drop in share prices of major banks like Standard Chartered Bank and Nabil Bank led to decline in sub-index of Banking group. Similarly, the sub-indices of Development Bank, Finance and Others groups lost 1.15 points ,0.28 points and 17.62 points to settle at 513.02 points ,491.12 points and 558.1 points respectively.

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