Share trading through WAN to be mandatory

Starting form the Nepali New Year, all 23 brokers will trade from their offices through Wide Area Network (WAN), an extended facility that Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) provide them. They don't need to go to the floor everyday from Bai-shakh 1 for trading as Nepse is making it mandatory for all the brokers to trade through WAN. Nepse has provided the extended facility of WAN from this fiscal year after the stock market automation. At present 20, out of the total 23 brokers trade through WAN from their offices. Nepse has written a letter on Sunday to the remaining three brokers to go for WAN from the begining of Nepali New Year. Baishakh 1, the Nepali New year day falls on April 13 this year. However, April 13 and 14 are holidays and the brokers will trade through WAN from April 15. "We wrote them on Sunday to go for WAN," Rewat Bahadur Karki, general manager and CEO of Nepse, said, adding that it wrote a letter to Broker no 7, 13 and 26 ¿ to start trading through WAN. Nepse will also add 27 more brokers ¿ to make it a total of 50 from existing 23 ¿ after the Constituent Assembly poll. With the increasing of the listed companies and volume of shares the existing brokers are not enough, claims Suman Parajuli, an investor. "Nepse must add more brokers so that it will be easier for the investors to trade," he said, adding that at present out of 23 only around 10 brokers are active. The new companies ¿ three big commercial banks ¿ are floating Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), the existing companies are issuing rights and bonus shares pushing the volume and transaction up. "Similarly, NT recently has its mega-issue," he said. Thus, the number of brokers should also be increased. "The best practice would be open-entry and open-exit." The Security Board of Nepal has registered capital mobilisation of Rs 4.05 billion by 20 different companies in the first six months of the current fiscal year. Eight of the companies have issued ordinary shares worth Rs 1.77 billion and 12 have issued rights shares worth Rs 2.28 billion.

Source: THT