Kathmandu, April 12:

Trading at the Nepal’s only stock market, Nepal Stock Exchange, could not take place even on Wednesday, thanks to the ‘fear factor’ among investors and brokers caused by the bandh and

the curfew imposed by the government for the fifth day.

Stock market trading has come to a complete halt for the last four days, leading to losses running into millions of rupees in lost share transactions. Talking about the overall situation of the stock market, Pramod Bhattarai, acting general manager of the Nepal Stock Exchange Ltd (NSEL), said that not a single share has been traded since Sunday.

Bhattarai said that share trading is usually open between 11 am to 1 pm. However, looking at the pattern of share transactions in the Nepal stock Exchange, it can be said that trading actually takes place from 12 noon to 1 pm.

The bandh followed by curfew has discouraged share trading, commented acting GM of NSEL Bhattarai while talking to The Himalayan Times. For share trading to take place, there is a need for a support for ‘buy and sale orders’ from investors, he said. Even after share transactions take place, brokers should also have time to carry out post-transactional jobs, he informed.

Share broker Nava Raj Pokharel said that traders are facing real hardship in carrying out share trading as financial settlement of their share trading business through Nepal Bank Ltd (NBL) has not been done for over ten days. Pokharel said that investors don’t have confidence in the stock market to invest due to the on-going insecurity.

NSEL has an institutional tie up with NBL for the payment of shares to brokers and investors through the bank, according to stock brokers.

Pokharel said that as stock trading is done through competition between buyers and sellers, it should be operated with a larger number of investors and all interested brokers. Pokharel said that NSEL’s money is yet to be deposited at NBL. Daily transactions in shares sometimes amount to about Rs 20 million and on an average it stands at about Rs 10 million, he said.

CN Upadhyaya, in-charge of the trading floor at NSEL, refused to speak to the press, citing lack of authorisation.

Suchita Khanal, another broker at the trading floor, commented that due to delay in financial settlements from NBL, brokers are facing problems to carry out share-trading as millions of rupees remain frozen.

Stock market officials worried that the government is incurring millions of rupees in losses in the from of lost taxes from share transactions. A total of 27 brokers are involved in share trading at the Nepal stock market and 700,000 sharehorlders have invested in the share market on 129 listed companies.