Share market capitalization grows by 123 per cent

Kathmandu, Sept. 17: Nepalese securities market capitalization has increased by 123.33 per cent to Rs. 1,890 billion in the last fiscal year 2015/16.

According to the statistics published by the Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON), share market capitalization was Rs. 846 billion in the FY 2014/15.

"Although various indices of the market caught negative trend in the last fiscal, primary and secondary market indices witnessed noticeable improvement. About Rs. 18.99 billion was mobilized in the market last year which is 31.51 per cent higher than the previous year," said SEBON.

Approximately 53 companies opened public offerings through initial public offerings (IPO), right shares, further public offerings (FPO) and mutual funds last year. There was IPO by 12 companies, FPO by three companies, issue of right shares by 37 companies and mutual fund by one.

Last year, 21 commercial banks, 70 development banks, 19 finance companies, 16 insurance companies, 1 hydroelectricity, 3 hotels and 1 trading companies registered bonus shares equivalent to Rs. 21.5 billion.

Number of listed companies was reduced to 229 from 232 even though 15 new companies were listed in the stock market. Due to merger and acquisition, 18 companies were delisted from the Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE).

In the last fiscal year, securities equivalent to Rs. 163.95 billion were traded in the NEPSE. "This is 151 per cent higher than the FY 2014/15. Securities of about Rs. 706 million were traded every day in average."

SEBON has initiated various reforms in the capital market such as allowing the investors to observe the market-depth, depositing the cash bonus to the investor's bank account, and making the market more transparent.