Secondary market bled dry, govt unconcerned

Oversupply and low demand coupled with government apathy has bled the secondary market white over the last couple of months.

The secondary market index today lost 3.65 points to close at 469.17 points as all sub-groups performed poorly.

Among the listed companies, Everest Bank became the top loser as it lost Rs 82 per unit in today’s trading whereas groupwise, hydropower sub-group — that has only three hydropower companies under its belt — lost heavily.

Among the nine sub-groups, hydropower saw a whopping fall of 9.66 points to close at 729.58 points. Others sub-group declined by 8.22 points to 531.08 points and development bank sub-group dropped by 5.79 points to 491.98 — bringing the secondary market down.

Technically, the market has also seen loss of confidence of among the investors as they have been sustaining repeated shocks.

However, the bear will continue to dominate Nepse, according to the Securities Research Center and Services (SRCS) study.

“If Nepse starts gaining, the first resistance point comes at 509.69 points. Even if it crosses that, it will again face an important resistance point at 512.48 points,” said the centre that has projected the data based on the index of March 1, when Nepse index was at 497.86 points.

If the bearish trend continues, the first major support will be at 466.89 points. However, if Nepse crosses this level too, the next support level would be at 447.75 points, according technical analysis done by SRCS.

“Liquidity crunch also has hit the secondary market,” said Rabindra Bhattarai, a renowned market analyst and lecturer at Shanker Dev College.

NMB’s further public issue

KATHMANDU: The capital market is experiencing a new phenomenon — further public issue — for the first time in its history of over one-and-a-half decade. NMB Bank Ltd has floated further public issue for the first time. It has floated 7,15,000-unit of shares for the public at Rs 285 per unit — adding Rs 185 premium to the face value of Rs 100. The 25th commercial bank has floated the further public issue since last Friday.

Sebon union on warpath

KATHMANDU: Securities Board of Nepal (Sebon) — the regulatory authority of the capital market — is in trouble since last week due to the dispute between the union and Sebon’s chairman. The union closed the office of the chairman last week saying chairman Dr Soorbir Poudel was not serious about solving the problems of the secondary market. “From today all the departments of the Board have been padlocked,” said the union members.