Kathmandu, July 7

The country’s only secondary market is gearing up to implement fully automated online trading system in the next four months.

During a press meet organised by Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) here today to bid adieu to its General Manager Sitaram Thapaliya, he informed that the fully automated online trading system will be implemented by November 7.

On the final day of his four-year tenure as Nepse GM, Thapaliya claimed to have introduced some systemic changes in the company. “We are at the threshold of introducing the fully automated system, while we have made numerous systemic changes in clearing and settlement, remote work stations of brokers and others,” he said.

Thapaliya also informed that Nepse planned to rope in a strategic partner. “We have completed due diligence audit and the report has been submitted to the Ministry of Finance,” he said. “A strategic partner is expected to make the company more efficient.”

The financial details of the country’s sole secondary market was also revealed during the event today that showed that the total turnover increased by an eye-popping 10 folds over the last five years.

Turnover in 10 months of current fiscal stood at Rs 178.93 billion against total turnover of Rs 21.56 billion in fiscal 2012-13.

According to Nepse, the total turnover in fiscal year 2013-14 had gone up to Rs 77.25 billion, but dropped to Rs 66.53 billion in the subsequent fiscal 2014-15.

In fiscal 2015-16, as the country reeled from the shocks of devastating earthquakes and unrest in Tarai region, share transaction surged significantly to reach Rs 163.95 billion, the data provided by Nepse showed.

Murahari Parajuli, spokesperson for Nepse, said, “Nepse index and the transaction amount had decreased after the earthquakes, but it surged when the three major political parties came to a consensus on the Constitution.”

Immediately after the earthquakes, the market had remained closed for 19 days, which helped prevented a disastrous fall in the market.

“The effect of the political unrest was not witnessed in the market. Also, banks and financial institutions declared huge bonus shares to increase the paid-up capital as per Nepal Rastra Bank’s direction, which drove up the capital market,” Parajuli added, explaining the massive bull run of last fiscal.