Sunrise Bank nears collection target

On the first two days -- Sunday and Monday -- in the invite for primary share applications for Sunrise Bank, a total of 84,185 applications worth over Rs 2.51 billion were collected.

"On Sunday, a total of 19,185 applicantions worth Rs 811.35 million were received and on Monday a total of 65,000 applications worth Rs 1.70 billion were received making it a total of 84,185 applications worth over Rs 2.51 billion," said Niraj Giri, director of the Securities Board of Nepal (Sebon) -- the regulatory authority of the capital market.

The protests and uncertain political situation in the first two days of the week are thought to have made people hesitant whereas today the would-be-investors' queues could be more visible around town.

The primary issue of 37,50,000-unit shares worth Rs 375 million -- the largest among commercial banks -- at Rs 100 per unit par value each has been floated from Sunday. Sunrise Bank expects a total of over Rs 6 billion -- over 20 times -- worth applications. If such an encouraging situation persists over the next two days -- today and tomorrow -- the bank's expectations might be easily met.

The capital market is considered a mirror of the economy. However, the Nepali capital market has not yet been able to reflect the economy as Nepse today posted a rise of 7.68 points (1.2 per cent) to 648.57 points just a day after the government led by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' resigned yesterday.

"The Nepali capital market is still not mature, it is influenced by a handful of people," said Dr Chiranjivi Nepal, former chairman of Sebon. "It's not an isolated case, the market in the past too never reflected the prevailing economic or political uncertainty," he added.

Another trait of the Nepali capital market is that it is dominated by financial institutions. The share of the financial institutions in the total share trading in the sole secondary market stands at over 95 per cent in 2065 BS -- mid-April 2008 to mid-April 2009. The commercial banks' sub-group has 45.37 per cent, finance companies' sub-group has 26.77 per cent and development banks' sub-group has 23 per cent share, making it to a total of 95.14 per cent between mid-April 2008 to mid-April 2009.

The remaining six sub-groups -- trading (2.05 per cent), hydropower (1.47 per cent), insurance (0.89 per cent), others (0.35 per cent) and manufacturing and processing (0.1 per cent) -- have less than five per cent share in the total trading.In power-starved Nepal, the hydropower companies' performance also cannot not be called satisfactory. "For sustainable development of the Nepali capital market, the presence of more manufacturing sectors apart from more brokers and Central Depository System (CDS) is a must," added Dr Nepal