Kathmandu, April 25, 2006

A sea of humanity gathered at Kalanki chowk to listen to their leaders while thousands marched on the Ring Road and inner streets of Kathmandu to celebrate the victory of the second people’s movement. The first one was the 1990 mass movement. Youths, women, children and senior citizens chanted pro-democracy slogans at their loudest. Rallyists played musical instruments and danced while they marched along the 27-km long Ring Road. Many others took a ride on buses and lorries to reach every nook and corner of the city to join the celebrations. A group of people broke the police chain at Bhadrakali to march towards Singha Durbar, while another group was wandering in front of the army headquarters saying that “Home Minister Kamal Thapa has taken refuge” there. Leaders of the alliance said that it was a people’s victory. “It is a preliminary success; now we have a lot of challenges ahead and the first is to implement the 12-point understanding reached with the Maoists,” said UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal. He also said the new government will have to declare ceasefire with Maoists, remove the terrorist- tag on them and call them for talks at the earliest. Stating that a process to hold elections to a constituent assembly should begin soon, Nepal said, “If the Maoists’ problem is not resolved, the democracy we have restored will have no meaning.”

Stock market exudes confidence

Kathmandu, April 25, 2006

Nepali stock market gained in confidence today after King Gyanendra announced the revival of the House of Representatives last night. Trading at the stock market had come to a complete halt for the last 17 days due to a strike called by the seven party alliance. The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index today rose by 6.66 point to 338.54 points compared to what was registered before the strike, according to the Nepal Stock Exchange Ltd (NSEL). Due to the prolonged strike and curfew, share trading did not take place for about 15 days which had created ‘confusions and uncertainty’ in the stock market, say experts. Mukunda Dhungel, general manager of NSEL, said that the index went up today as trading took place after a long gap and confidence among buyers and investors, after the change in national politics, has been quite high. Dhungel also said that a total of 15 listed companies’ share was traded today amounting to over Rs 7.5 million. A total of 17,880 shares were traded today through 214 transactions. Pramod Bhattarai, a market analyst and deputy general manager of NSEL opined that investors and brokers were excited as normalcy returned after a long political deadlock. He also commented that investors have hoped for better Nava Raj Pokharel, stockbroker at NSEL, also told this daily.