First ever Capital Market Expo concludes; participants overwhelmed by the success of event; SEBON thinking of taking it to the provincial level

The first ever capital market expo organized by SEBON on 26^th and 27^th of Baisakh 2075, has concluded with praise worthy feedbacks. The program was organized on the occasion of the completion of 25^th year of operation of SEBON. In a press conference held at SEBON prior to the event, the chairman Mr. Rewat Bahadur Karki, had expressed immense optimism regarding the success of the event and based on the feedbacks it does seem to have materialized.

The expo had 119 stalls from brokers, merchant banks and other market participants. Similarly more than 25 thousand people visited the expo in the span of two days. The very good news is the diversity of people who came. There were not just existing investors, there also wore people who never had never heard of a share or stock exchange. There students form +2 level to bachelors and masters.

After the completion of expo, sharesansar had talks with few of the concerned parties and the excerpt of the same is mentioned below:

Mr. Niraj Giri, the spokesperson of SEBON, mentioned that despite the short time frame the level of participation was encouraging. He said, “The response and feedbacks we got from the people made us realize that the hunger for new information and knowledge regarding capital market exists both in the existing investors and non-investors too. What is more exciting is the fact that even though the stock market is limited to few cities, people from all over are equally interested. So next time we organize such an event, we are looking forward to organizing it in all 7 provinces.”

Similarly, Niranjaya Ghimire from SEBON also added, “We do realize that the time frame was short. We had already planned it, but the selection of date took much time.” When asked why the promotion wasn’t expanded to colleges and national dailys, he replied that given the time constraint they couldn’t fit in all the possibilities but they will surely be keeping this in mind while organizing for the next time.

Mr. Chandra Singh Saud, CEO of NEPSE, had also attended the expo being one of the key stakeholder of capital market. He expressed deep gratitude saying that the program has actually surpassed his expectation. He added, “I had expected to see merchant bankers, investors and traders, but it was really pleasing to see students and people from outside the valley too. They didn’t just learn the basics of market, they also had an opportunity to see how the regulatory body functions, how a broking agency works and the like”. When asked for suggestions to improve in days to come, he replied, “All in all, the program was a success without a doubt and based on the responses here I think this should reach all 7 provinces. Similarly, another great approach would be to organize capital market based quizzes in colleges, this will enhance the general awareness and also boost the level of participation.”

Aside from the organizers, we also had a short talk with the participating brokers. The excerpt of the same is added below:

Mr. Priya Raj Regmi, chairman of Stock Broker Association of Nepal (SBAN) and also from Broker No. 50 expressed that this expo has actually helped in the development and promotion of capital market in Nepal. He added, “There was something to learn for everyone. The visitors learned about the capital market and its functioning, similarly we got to learn the investors’ expectations and what they look for. In addition we learnt about the technical aspects of the market through various experts who made their presentation in the market. I am very satisfied with the way this expo turned out, my only suggestion would be to expand this in provincial level”.

Mr. Raman Panta, from Broker No. 40, was very pleased with the program. He said, “At first I felt like – we have to do it so let’s do it – but after the expo began, I realized that from next time on maybe we also need to actively organize such programs. For this a big thanks goes to SEBON.” He mentioned that his exhilaration was raised seeing the level of participation. The students and potential investors were coming in to understand our working procedures, the existing investors wanted to know more regarding the policies of regulating body and so on.

Similarly. Mr. Nitesh Agrawal, from Broker No. 17 expressed that considering this is the first time such program is organized, it was a success. He added, “A lot of people came, which gave us an opportunity to inform about us and capital market to the investors and the potential market participants. What I personally noticed was, of the young people who were visiting they can be broadly categorized into two types: (1) Those who wanted to understand the stock market and start investing (2) Those who wanted to understand the prospect of employment/internship in this field. Either of these crowd were directly of concern to us and I believe this expo helped both the parties.”

Mr. Bishal K. Agrawal, from Broker No 56 was particularly excited by the Young Crowd. He said, “The participants were curious about demat, KYC and various other information related to capital market. The entire experience was a lot of fun for us, our staffs and I hope the visitors too. I really look forward to such events in the days to come”.

Having similar feeling as the rest, Mr. Raj Kumar Timilsina from Broker No. 34, said, “Given such short time frame and also being the first time, the program was actually a grand success. Many visitors, despite being from Kathmandu itself, had little to no knowledge of what a share is or any other capital market related things. So the expo was extremely helpful to them. What I’ve personally realized is that these kinds of program should be more regular. Not just SEBON, stock brokers, merchant bankers and all other stakeholders should also take initiation in organizing such programs in the future.”