No reason to retreat, says Investors Forum after meeting NRB officials

As Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index has started plunging at an alarming rate amid misunderstanding created by the Nepal Rastra Bank’s recent directive to the banks and financial institutions (BFIs) to lower their short-term investment, Nepal Investors’ Forum has met the senior officials of the central regulatory bank asking them to clear the air.

According to the statement issued by the Forum following the meeting with the officials, it said that it has sensed a group of manipulators was active to hoard the scrips on cheap price through manipulation of market by misinterpreting the NRB directive regarding the one percent threshold on ‘held for trading’.

“It seems that the manipulators are active to hoard shares on cheap price by misinterpreting the NRB’s circular and there were no reasons for the market to fall,” stated the press release of the Forum.

Stating that there were no reasons for the retreat in the market, the Forum also urged the investors to make investment with utmost patience.

“There are many reasons that market will go up further like there is still enough liquidity in the market, the interest rate still going down and it is almost sure that the limit of the life insurance fund’s investment in investable capital is going to be doubled to 10 percent, among others,” read the statement. “We thus request the investors to make prudent decisions with patience,” it added.

The Forum has also urged the regulators to play a supportive role in the improvement and development of the market.

Dipendra Agrawal, member of the forum, told ShareSansar, that the regulators should be careful that their decision should not have sentimental fallout in the market.

“The central bank should make a careful assessment before making any decision. The recent directive was all out of sudden and lacked clarity which created panic in the market. But the Rastra Bank officials already clarified,” he added.