The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) has initiated measures to increase the trading hours from the present three hours to four or five from the upcoming fiscal year. Although a final decision has not been reached, the plan has been welcomed by stakeholders.

“The secondary market has received verbal suggestions from investors, brokers, clearing houses and other stakeholders to extend the business hours,” said Sitaram Thapaliya, general manager of Nepse, “Moreover, we are planning to increase the trading hours from the current three hours to four or five in line with requests from investors.”

Share buyers asked Nepse to extend the trading hours as a growth in the market in recent days had intensified transaction clearing pressures. Investors complained that they didn’t have enough time to forward their buy-sell decisions before the market closed.

“The total hours must be increased because sometimes we face difficulties to register our final decisions with the brokers,” said Rajan Tiwari, a small portfolio investor. “The pressure on brokerage houses has increased, and that must be addressed by increasing the trading hours.”   

A swelling number of investors has been cited as the reason for the increase in pressure and the need to implement reforms.

According to Thapaliya, extending the trading time will ensure growth of the market and particularly benefit investors. “Share buyers will have ample time to make decisions and conduct more business if the decision comes into effect,” said Thapaliya. 

The broker community has also taken the proposal positively while saying that other functions like CDS (Central Depository System and clearing should operate faster to handle the increased number of transactions. “It is a good initiative by Nepse,” said Priya Raj Regmi, president of the Stock Broker’s Association of Nepal,” Now the focus should be on enhancing the depository and clearing services.”

According to Regmi, the reform will help investors most by providing them more time to think over their decisions. “Moreover, the operational pressure faced by brokers will also ease a bit,” said Regmi.  

Meanwhile, CDS and Clearing has been working on technical aspects and is yet to respond to Nepse, officials said.

CDS will be able to register more transactions if the reform materialises,” said Dev Prakash Gupta, chief executive officer of CDS and Clearing. “We are currently handling 6,700 entries on an average, and any further increment will not affect the process. We can ensure swift transactions.” As of the present, there are 50 clearing members and 56 licensed depository participants in CDS. The number of shares in demat format has reached 922.527 million.