With Chilime´s IPO on hold, the market turnover for common shares improved slightly by 9.96% to Rs 226,147,280 . The total turnover for the week declined by 75.79% as the bulk of last week´s turnover resulted from the trading of promoter shares. The NEPSE index declined slightly by 0.10% to end the week at 683.71. Trading (+3.04%) was the only sector to gain as Bishal Bazar´s stock increased by Rs 100. The ´Others´ sector remained unchanged. Development banking (-2.71%) was the biggest loser of the week, mainly due to the Infrastructure Development Bank (-Rs. 90) becoming the biggest loser of the week. Slight declines were registered in Insurance (-0.69%), Hydropower (-0.55%), Finance (-0.40%) and Commercial banking (-0.25%). Overall, there was modest activity in the market as investors waited for the IPO rush to end.
Issues relating to corporate governance were raised during the week as World Merchant Banking and Finance´s chief executive officer and one of the directors got arrested over fraud charges. The firm´s stock was subsequently suspended from the exchange for a day, and resumed later in the week after Nepal Rastra Bank rules and other related rules were met. In recent times, Nepal Rastra Bank has taken over the Bank of Kathmandu´s board following internal dispute among its board members and decided to liquidate Nepal Development Bank citing the latter´s extremely weak financial position. The regulatory body´s tight monitoring could make investors wary but tight monitoring will be in the interest of the investors and help maintain the integrity of the banking and financial sectors.
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