Sunday, September 8, 2019

Stock market drops four months low

The share market has continued its losing streak and closed at a four-month low of 1,178.46 points – shedding 12.61 points on a day – today due to government's failure to implement policies.
Earlier, the market dropped to 1,181.09 points on April 9.
The stock market has also been affected by a shortage of loanable funds with banks and high interest rates, the experts claim.
However, share market plunged today after finance minister Dr Yuba Raj Khatiwada said that the government could intervene in the share market, a stock broker said, adding that the finance minister’s today’s statement has disheartened the market. “The finance minister’s statement has come in a time, when investor confidence has started growing.”
Speaking at a programme here today, finance minister said that the ministry could step in, if market regulators were reluctant to regulate the stock market. “The government is more concerned with achieving higher economic growth than boosting the stock market index,” he said, adding that the government, however, seeks to strengthen the capital market.
The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index has lost 90 points in the last five weeks, and wiped out around Rs 84.48 billion from the book value of stocks held by investors, whereas market capitalisation has also gone down to Rs 1,496.71 billion from Rs 1,581.19 billion.
Though, the Nepse index hit an all-time high of 1,881.45 points – with a record Rs 1,981 billion market capitalisation and a record Rs 2.75 billion daily turnover – on July 27, 2016, the continuous slump in the secondary market has pulled down the current daily turnover to hover around Rs300 million.
“Indecision over the calculation of capital gains tax (CGT), delays in the enforcement of proposed brokerage licences to banks, government’s stern tax policy and delays in the implementation of margin trading contributed to bring down the share market,” the brokers claim, adding that the share market regulator – Securities Board of Nepal (Sebon) – is, though, making all efforts to enforce good governance in the secondary market. “The government’s apathy towards addressing the problems in the stock exchange had taken a toll on the market.”

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