OTC market yet to open account

In the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse), thousands of shares are traded daily, but the Over-The-Counter (OTC) market has yet not seen any trading till date. Similar is the fate of government and corporate bonds. OTC being an unorganised secondary market, it does not require the involvement of brokers. Thus in Nepal, Nepse facilitates the transfer of the rights of such OTC shares. The shares of companies that have been de-listed by Nepse, the share of small companies which are unable to meet Nepse's and its regulator SEBON's requirements, and the shares of banks and financial institutions (BFIs) which have issued their initial public offering (IPO) but not yet listed at the Nepse, can be traded over the counter. The shares of the companies, which were de-listed from secondary market, Nepse and are not fulfilling the criteria of Nepse, SEBON, Nepal Rastra Bank NRB and Insurance Board (IB) can be traded as OTC shares. Nepse so far has de-listed 43 companies; and most of the de-listed companies are virtually non-existent. As a result, their shares are also not in circulation. However, the general public is reluctant in buying the shares of the de-listed companies that are still operating, considering them highly risky. Besides, thousands of share-holders that have shares of the de-listed companies like Nepal Bank Ltd (NBL), which was de-listed from Nepse due to its poor financial condition, are not even aware that they can trade their shares. The share holders of the banks that have already distributed the shares through IPOs but not yet listed on the Nepse are simply not interested in over-the-counter transaction and prefer to hold the shares until they are listed on the stock exchange in the hope of getting a better return. "In some cases, companies themselves are not interested in selling their stocks, in retail, over-the-counter," Shambhu Pant, Nepse's spokesperson said. Similarly, in the last eight years, only a nominal number of corporate bonds and government bonds have been traded in the secondary market. "Public are not interested in buying the bonds from the secondary market, they will rather buy directly from the primary market or wait for a new bond to hit the market," spokesperson of Nepse said. "Likewise, government bonds are mostly bought by BFIs to fulfill their Statutory Liquidity Requirements (SLR) as directed by the central bank. Thus they hold the bonds and the general public also hold them as a safe investment tool," he said.

Source: tht