Investment outlook continues to slide

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Jan 5L:Investors’ confidence in the stock market continued to remain low. The low expectation is reflected by the slide in the Nepse Index consecutive fourth week.

According to information disseminated by the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse), the only secondary market in Nepal for stock transaction, the Index slumped by almost 9 points this week.

While the Index at the opening of trading on Monday stood at 269.75, the barometer of investors’ confidence dropped 8.67 points during the weekly trading to settle at 261.08 at the close of trading late Thursday.

The Index has been on a continuous slide for the past four weeks. While the indicator had dropped 6.41 points last week, it had slumped by over 3 points and by over 6 points in the previous two weeks.

On a group-wise manner, the Index of most groups waned during the week. The slump was largest in the commercial bank group that dropped by almost 14 points from 274.29 to 260.87.

The index of the banking group had dropped from 287.52 to 276.79 last week. Similarly the declines in the previous two weeks were 7 points and 8 points respectively.

The indices of hotel group, insurance group, finance group and other group fell from 235.77 to 233.47, 302.92 to 302.61, 298 to 295.48 and 147.26 to 146.41 respectively.

However, while the index of the manufacturing and processing group remained unchanged at 304.99, the index of the trading group surged marginally from 103.77 to 105.39.

The trading during the week was largely dominated by the commercial bank group, which captured 67.14 per cent of the total trading. While no shares from the manufacturing and processing group were exchanged, the participation of the trading group, hotel group, insurance group, finance group and other group stood at 0.28 per cent, 3.91 per cent, 1.95 per cent, 26.07 per cent and 0.65 per cent respectively.

During the week, a total of 17,468 share units worth Rs 6.01 million were traded in a total 392 transactions. The total transaction includes 110 units of preference shares valued at Rs 8,220 of Taragaon Regency Hotel Ltd.

Trading during the week, in terms of total value of transaction, was led by Nepal Bangladesh Bank Ltd., with transactions worth over Rs 965 thousands.

In the last week, a total of 42,146 shares worth Rs 14.95 million were traded in 881 transactions. The trading in the previous week had stood at 102,361 share units valued at Rs 27.71 million.

Similarly, Oriental Hotels Ltd. led the trading in terms of the total numbers of shares transacted, while Nepal Merchant Banking and Finance Ltd. topped in the number of transactions.

The stock exchange this week remained open for only four days. Shares of 32 companies were traded during the week.

Companies whose shares were traded on all four days include Nepal Bank Ltd., Nepal Arab Bank Ltd., Nepal SBI Bank, Nepal Bangladesh Bank Ltd., Bank of Kathmandu Ltd., Nepal Merchant Banking and Finance Ltd., Oriental Hotels Ltd. and Nepal Bangladesh Finance and Leasing Company Ltd.

Similarly, companies whose shares were traded only three days include Standard Chartered Bank Ltd., Everest Bank Ltd., Nepal Industrial and Commercial Bank Ltd., Salt Trading Company Ltd. and Sagarmatha Insurance Company Ltd.

Shares of Nepal Share Markets Company Ltd., Necon Air and Goodwill Finance Company Ltd. were traded for only one day.

Internet users blighted by high charges

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KATHMANDU, Jan 5: Heights of carteling in the information technology sector can be seen in Pokhara, the famous lake city, where internet and email charges is almost eight-folds higher than in the capital.

The large number of cyber cafes that scatters around the city and the uniform pricing of the services through the formation of a cartel has compelled local consumers to use the services at an expensive rate.

The Pokhara Cyber Association (PCA), established some three years ago, has been fixing the price for the use of the services, which presently is Rs 4 per minute. The charge for the services in Kathmandu is less than 50 paisa per minute.

Though the latest meeting of the Consumer Protection Forum slapped a ban on such fixation of prices jointly, poor implementation of the decisions so taken, and the lack of an effective watchdog from the government’s side, are the core reasons why Pokhara internet users continue to pay high charges.

Although the internet service users continue to be blighted by the high rates, Bam Bahadur Thapa, President of the PCA, claims that uniform pricing mechanism has been developed to protect the interests of the entrepreneurs engaged in providing such services.

Internet users in Pokhara are blighted not just by the high charge of the services. Other drawbacks in the lake-city’s internet connections come in the form of slow download and frequent disconnection.

Commercial internet services in Pokhara began almost five years back. Mercantile Communications, based in Kathmandu, began providing the services through Phewa Net in Pokhara. Presently, there are four Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Pokhara, including Phewa Net. The others are C Net, BB Dot Com and Bhayo Net.

However, despite the presence of four ISPs, unlike the unlimited internet access facility that is being extended to the internet users in the Kathmandu valley, no such facilities are given to consumers in Pokhara.

ISPs claim that the inability to provide all facilities is due to the high charges charged by the NTC. "The NTC charges rupees four hundred thousand for lease line each year. That is why the services in Pokhara is expensive," says Manager of BB Dot Com Raju Baral.

Entrepreneurs even blame the slow downloads and frequent disconnection on the NTC. Gajendra Sharma, Managing Director of Phewa Net, claims that frequent disconnection and slow downloads is due to the poor lease line facility provided by the Nepal Telecommunication Corporation (NTC).

However, Chief of the NTC Gandhaki zonal office, Surendra Thike does not buy the idea of faulty NTC lease lines. "Lease lines are just like any other telephone lines. The delays in downloads and frequent disconnection is not due to the lease lines," he says.