Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) cautioned the listed companies not to publicise any price sensitive information and maintain secrecy during the trading hours.
As the rumuors of listed companies being merged or distributing bonus shares and rights shares during the trading hours from 12 am to 3 pm on Sundays to Thursdays have impact on price of the stocks, the front line regulator has directed the listed companies to lie low during trading hours.
The Nepse has defined decisions regarding issuance of bonus shares, cash dividends and rights shares and purchase and sale of properties worth more than Rs 100 million as the price sensitive information.
Recently, most of the stock prices has seen a roller coaster ride due to price sensitive information leaked to selected investors or rumours in the market.
Earlier, Nepse had asked the listed companies to inform it about such decisions an hour before share trading begins. But the latest notice has asked to restrain from publicising information during the trading hours.
Failure to abide the new directives will be taken as insider trading, the Nepse said, asking to be more careful when conveying information about discussions and decisions regarding mergers and takeovers by the regulator as rumours about mergers affect share prices.
In recent months, the listed companies have been leaking the price sensitive information on various news channels including the online media, it added.
The stock prices of listed companies have appreciated due to the rumours of mergers and cash and stock dividends.
Likewise, Nepse has also directed the listed companies to transfer the share ownership within 15 days of the application. Although share trading settlement and clearing is undertaken within three days of the transaction, physical certificate transfer still takes more than three weeks.