Cooperatives Bank in the offing

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KATHMANDU, March 31 - The proposed National Cooperatives Bank will finalize all the necessary legal procedures to apply for the permission by mid-April and it will start banking operation by the end of current fiscal year.

According to information given at a press conference organized here toady, the main objective of the proposed bank is to extend short term, medium term and long term financial investment along with the technical cooperation to the cooperatives established in the local levels.

Answering various quires raised at the press conference, Deepak Prasad Bastola, National Coordinator of the National Cooperative Association, said that a well-equipped training center would soon be established with a main aim to provide technical input to the local cooperatives. He said, "Lack of proper training has been the main cause behind recent problems in the cooperatives movement and the training center would provide technical knowledge to local cooperatives to enhance their productivity and marketing skills." Briefing about the area of investment, he said that the bank would also invest on the business organizations, however, he said that decision of investment would largely depend upon how close are the projects with the principles of cooperatives.

He further said that the bank would not basically invest on the individual projects, however, he didn’t completely rule out such possibilities. "If the accumulated deposits are not observed by the local cooperatives and business organizations, we will be left with no option than to lift the restriction," he said.

When asked about the various fraud incidents related with of the mushrooming cooperatives, he largely blamed the lack of proper cooperatives education for such growing incidents. "Due to failure of concerned authorities in expanding cooperatives education, many cooperatives have failed to follow exact principle and guidelines of the cooperatives, giving rise to such problems."

He further added that majority of cooperatives registered in the Nepal Rastra Bank under the political pressure have failed, eroding the credibility of other genuine cooperatives.

The proposed bank, which is expected to start its function by the end of coming June, will have Rs 640 million as authorized capital, Rs 320 million as issued capital and Rs 160 million as paid up capital.

Silver lining in Nepalese stock market

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KATHMANDU, March 31 - After witnessing series of plunges for weeks, the Nepalese share market this week, has brought a fresh silver lining with a surge of over four points, propelled chiefly by the improvements in the participation and share prices of the commercial banks.

The Nepse market, during this week’s transaction swelled by 4.29 per cent to touch 386.87 points on the weekly closing on Friday against a tumble of over 7 points registered last week.

According to the weekly share information issued by Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse), the opening index on the first day of trading on Monday was 382.58 points, which sprouted to touch 386.87 at the end day of trading on Friday.

On the group-wise basis, except for the commercial bank group, indices of the entire groups decreased or remained unchanged. The index of commercial banks, which commands lion’s share in the Nepalese money market since the earlier days of Nepse, recorded a surge of over 9 points and remained at to 439.28 points from 430.94 points bringing a fresh expectation among the financial investors. Its index, during last two consecutive weeks had faced a double-digit slump of over 12 points and 10 points respectively.

However, the indices of manufacturing and processing group, finance and insurance group and other group tumbled during the last week transaction on the Nepse floor. The index of manufacturing and processing group declined by over three points to remain at 341.51 points from 344.68 points. Similarly, albeit huge plunge of the group was recorded last week, in which it saw a record plunge of almost 26 points within a week.

Similarly, the index of finance and insurance group also continued to demonstrate similar slump of over three points and remained at 336.22 from 339.55 points. The group’s index, last week had also fell by almost six points and remained at 346.22 points. The downward trend of the indices also dragged the index of other group with a slump of eight points to remain at 211.74 from 219.43 points. The group-wise index for the trading group and hotel group remained unchanged during the weekly transactions and remained at 116.75 points and 303.66 points respectively.

After record-low participation of commercial banks in the total transaction, which remained around 60 per cent for last two consecutive weeks, group-wise trading information for this week reveals that its participation again jumped backed to its normal range and captured lion’s share of 90.34 per cent. The participation of commercial banks made a drastic slump and remained at 58.50 per cent last week and 60.33 per cent two weeks ago. Such slumps witnessed since last few weeks were one of the main reasons behind the series of tumbles observes in the Nepse Index.

The participation of finance group, which was increased considerably again, dived to capture only 4.93 per cent of the total transaction. Its participation during last two consecutive weeks was as high as 38 per cent. Similarly, the contribution of insurance group slightly improves to capture 1.76 per cent form 0.30 per cent observed last week. However, manufacturing and processing group’s participation, during this week’s transaction, declined to touch 1.93 from last week’s 2.10 per cent. Similarly, the participation of hotel group, trading group and other group stood at 0.07 per cent, 0.08 per cent and 0.88 per cent respectively.

Along with the surge in the Nepse index, the volume of transaction also sprouted this week. During this week’s transaction, a total of 41,304 units of shares valued at Rs 34.8 million were transacted in 710 transactions. The Nepse floor last week had witnessed a total of 669 transactions in which a total of 37,718 shares valued at Rs 29.48 million were traded whereas, trading in the previous week stood at 196,220 shares units valued over Rs 96.12 million in 1,151 transactions.

During the transaction this week, 52 companies had quoted their price for trading, out of which, shares of 35 companies were traded. Nepse, during last week, remained open for all five days.

Companies, whose shares were traded for five days this week, include Nepal Arab Bank (Rs 1,651 - 1,585), Nepal Bangladesh Bank (Rs 1,225 - 1,360), Everest Bank (Rs 821 - 915), Bank of Kathmandu (Rs 1,050 - unchanged), and NIC Bank (Rs 485 - 496). Similarly, other companies were Necon Air (Rs 145 -140), HISAF Company (Rs 270 - 260), Ace Finance (Rs 540 - 550), Sagarmatha Insurance (Rs 200 - 221) and Lumbini Finance and Leasing (Rs 245 -259).

Similarly, companies whose shares were traded for only four days include Nepal Bank Limited (Rs 451 - 461), Nepal Grindlays Bank (Rs 1,901 - 2,200) and Universal Finance and Capital Markets (Rs 175 - 180).

Similarly, other companies with transactions in only one day during this week were Nepal Indosuez Bank (10/17,075), Bishal Bazar (15/26,250), Himalayan General Insurance (40/9,640), Nepal Finance and Saving (110/71,500)) and Kathmandu Finance (10/3,200).

Businessmen happy over army deployment

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BHITTAMOD, Mahottari, March 31 - A contingent of the Royal Nepal Army (RNA) has apprehended three Indian number plate vehicles on Friday and handed over them to the Customs Office for legal action.

The army contingent on regular patrol seized one Indian vehicle on the frontier Matihani VDC and two other Indian bikes in Jaleswor, the district headquarters, and handed over them to the Bhittamod-based Customs Office. People who would never paid customs duty were also seen standing in queues to pay customs charges following the deployment of the army three days later of the schedule.

The government has mobilised the army in major Customs points across the Nepal-India and Nepal-Tibet borders in order to control cross-border illegal trade and smuggling.

Customs Officer Mahendra Kumar Bantawa said that there had been a positive impact to the national coffer and the smuggling that thrived along the 48 km long stretches of the Nepal-India border had also been controlled.

The Bhittamod Customs that never generated targeted revenues hoped of meeting its set goal in the future. Thanks largely to the RNA personnel!

"Smugglers have turned businessmen and a feeling has gradually developed that they should pay customs charges," Bantawa said.

Secretary of Jaleshwor Industry and Commerce Association, Dil Bahadur Shrestha, refuting the local rumours, viewed that army mobilisation would leave a long term positive impact on Nepal’s commerce and industries.

Asked to comment on the artificial shortage of daily consumer goods in the local markets since the army deployment, Bantawa said that army and the Customs Office would jointly raid in personal warehouses to curb the price hikes.

Federation formed to help FNCCI

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KATHMANDU, March 31 - The recently held meeting of Bi-national Chambers of Commerce and Industry has passed the proposal to form a federation to cooperate Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) on the way towards creating appropriate environment for the development of trade and industry in the country.

According to a press release issued here today, a three-member committee headed by Narendra Bahadur Basnyat, President of Nepal-US Chamber of Commerce, has been formed to conduct necessary preparation for the formation of the federation.

As per the understanding reached in the last election and to ensure unity among entire industrialists and businessmen, the meeting also passed a proposal demanding to elect current FNCCI Vice President Rabi Bhakta Shrestha to the post of President unanimously in the upcoming FNCCI presidential election.

During last election, an understanding was reached to make current Vice President of FNCCI Rabi Bhakta Shrestha to the President unanimously after the completion of the term of current President Pradeep Kumar Shrestha. The recently concluded meeting Bagmati Zone Chambers of Commerce and Industry had also made similar demand.

The meeting has also formed a committee to initiate negotiation with the concerned government authorities on issues related with industrial security and duty draw back problems. The member of the committee are Narendra Basnyat, President of Nepal-Us Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Prabhakar S Rana, Former President of Nepal-India Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Rajendra Kumar Khetan, President of Nepal-Britain Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The meeting also decided to request the FNCCI and Nepal Chamber of Commerce to appoint and send their representatives to the newly formed committee.