Kathmandu, February 2:

The government has asked Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) to provide it the list of traders of promoter shares in the recent months. “The move is likely to shake the already eroding confidence of investors,” said an investor. The sole secondary market permitted trading of promoters shares since last March.

Earlier, the government asked for a list of investors trading over Rs 5 million annually which had pulled Nepse down. Meanwhile, Nepse again also lost 2.2 points to drop to 636.31 points. Yesterday, it lost 20.38 points to fall to 638.51 points. The year on year (y-o-y) Nepse index decreased by 28.4 per cent to 734.85 points during mid-December 2008. This index was 1025.91 a year ago. The Float Index — calculated on the basis of real transactions — as of August 24,2008 at market prices, remained at 69.45 during mid-December 2008, according to Nepal Rastra Bank’s report.

The number of companies listed with Nepse increased to 145 in mid-December 2008 compared to 142 a year ago.