How to invest in Nepal: the complete beginner's guide

Saving is keeping money safe so it is there when you need it: a savings account, a fixed deposit, cash at home. The aim is that the rupees do not disappear. Investing is putting money into something that should earn more than it costs to hold, over years: a share of a company's profits, the interest on a loan you make to the government, a fund that holds both. You accept that its value moves, in exchange for a higher return over time.

Speculating is buying because you expect the price to rise soon, not because of what the thing earns. Buying a share on Monday because a Telegram group says it will hit the 15% upper limit by Wednesday is speculating, whatever the app calls it. Gambling is a bet whose expected result is a loss: a lottery, a betting app, or a scheme that promises 50% a month.

All four have a place except the last, but they must not be confused. Money you need next month belongs in savings. Money you will not touch for ten years can be invested. Speculating with money you cannot afford to lose is how most beginners on NEPSE lose their first lakh.

Inflation is the rate at which prices rise, so each rupee buys a little less every year. Nepal Rastra Bank measured consumer inflation at 6.34% a year in mid-September 2026, up from 3.08% on average in the year before. NRB projects about 5.5% for 2083/84.

At 5.5% a year, something that costs Rs 1,00,000 today costs about Rs 1,70,814 in ten years. Put the other way, Rs 1,00,000 kept in a drawer for ten years buys what about Rs 58,543 buys today.

This is why saving alone is not enough. The average top fixed-deposit rate for individuals at commercial banks was 4.013% in Kartik 2083. After the 6% tax on interest you keep 3.77%. With inflation at 6.34%, the real return, what you gain in buying power, is about minus 2.4% a year. Against last year's inflation it would have been plus 0.7%.

• Nominal return is the rate you are quoted. Real return is what is left after inflation: (1 + nominal) ÷ (1 + inflation) − 1. A quick estimate is nominal minus inflation.
• Rs 1,00,000 in a fixed deposit for ten years at 3.77% after tax grows to about Rs 1,44,814. If prices rise 5.5% a year, that buys what about Rs 84,779 buys today. The money grew; its buying power shrank.
• Over eleven years, by NRB's consumer price index, what cost Rs 100 in 2014/15 cost Rs 178 in 2025/26: prices rose 78%.
• What drives inflation in Nepal in the 2026 figures: food (7.54%), ghee and oil (16.68%), fruit and transport. Most of Nepal's goods come from or through India, so Indian prices and the rupee's peg feed straight into ours.
• Deposits still have a job. Money you need soon, and your emergency fund, belong in a bank even at a negative real return: the alternative is risking money you cannot afford to see fall. Inflation is the reason to invest the rest, not a reason to empty the bank.

Simple interest is paid only on the money you put in: amount = P × (1 + r × t). Compound interest is paid on the money plus the interest it has already earned: amount = P × (1 + r)^t. In the first year the two are the same. After that, compounding pulls away, and the gap grows every year.

Compounding is not only for deposits. A company that keeps part of its profit and earns on it compounds; a mutual fund that reinvests its income compounds; a share whose dividends you use to buy more shares compounds. Time is the ingredient you cannot buy later.

• The rule of 72. Divide 72 by the yearly rate to get roughly how many years money takes to double. At 6%, 72 ÷ 6 = 12 years (exactly 11.9). At 8%, 9 years (exactly 9.0). At 12%, 6 years (exactly 6.1).
• Use it backwards for inflation. At 5.5%, prices double in about 72 ÷ 5.5 ≈ 13 years (exactly 12.9).
• Use it to test a promise. "Double your money in two years" means 36% a year, every year. "Double it in six months" means more than 200% a year. No legal investment in Nepal pays that.
• Compounding works against you on debt. An unpaid credit card or a moneylender's monthly interest compounds just as fast, in the other direction. Clearing it is often the best return available.

Three people each invest Rs 5,000 a month in something that earns a steady return, and each stops putting money in at 60. The first starts at 23 and never stops. The second waits until 33. The third starts at 23, invests for only ten years, then stops paying in and leaves the money to grow.

• The third person paid in Rs 6,00,000 and the second Rs 16,20,000, yet at 10% the third ends with more: the ten early years had 27 more years to compound.
• These are illustrations, not promises. Nothing in Nepal earns a steady 8% or 10% every year: deposits pay less, and shares pay more in some years and lose in others. The point is the shape, not the number.
• They are in future rupees. At 5.5% inflation for 37 years, prices rise about 7 times, so divide by that to see the buying power in today's money.
• Tax and fees are left out to keep the arithmetic visible. A mutual fund charges up to about 1.9% a year in fees; shares pay commission and capital gains tax. They lower every figure.

Risk (जोखिम) is the chance that you get back less than you expected, or less than you put in. Volatility (उतारचढाव) is how much and how fast a price moves. They are not the same: a share can swing 15% in a day and still be a sound long-term holding, and a cooperative deposit can look perfectly stable until the day it cannot pay.

Higher return comes only with higher risk, because nobody pays extra for safety they do not have to. When someone offers a high return with "no risk", one of the two is false. In Nepal, as everywhere, that has usually been the "no risk".

Your time horizon is when you will need the money back. Liquidity (तरलता) is how quickly something turns into cash without losing value. Match them: money for next year's fees cannot sit in shares that might be 20% down on the day you need them, and money for retirement wastes 37 years in a savings account.

• Shares sell in minutes on a trading day and the money arrives two working days later (T+2), but at whatever the price is that day.
• An open-ended mutual fund buys your units back at that day's NAV, less an exit fee of up to 1.5% if you leave early.
• A fixed deposit can usually be broken early at a lower rate; ask your bank what it deducts before you open one.
• Savings bonds run five years. They can be pledged for a loan, and resold in a thin market.
• Gold sells the same day to a jeweller, but the making charge you paid on jewellery does not come back.
• Land can take months to sell, cannot be sold in part, and costs registration fees and capital gains tax on the way out.

Diversification (विविधीकरण) means not depending on one thing. If all your money is in one hydropower company, one flood or one PPA dispute can wipe out years of saving. Spread across twenty companies in five sectors, no single disaster can. Spread further, across shares, deposits and a little gold, a bad year for shares is not a bad year for everything.

Asset allocation is the split: how much in deposits and bonds, how much in shares or equity funds, how much in gold. It matters more than which share you pick, because it decides how far your money can fall and how fast it can grow. A rule of thumb often quoted is to hold your age in percent in safer assets and the rest in shares; it is a starting point, not a rule.

Rebalancing brings the split back after markets move it. Say you hold Rs 1,00,000: Rs 60,000 in shares and Rs 40,000 in deposits. Shares rise 30% and the deposits earn 4%. You now hold Rs 78,000 in shares and Rs 41,605 in deposits, 65.2% in shares. To return to 60%, move about Rs 6,237 from shares to deposits. Rebalancing makes you sell some of what has risen and buy what has not, which is the opposite of what fear and greed want.

• By company: no single company should be able to sink you.
• By sector: banks and insurers are 51.4% of NEPSE's value and hydropower 17.8% (NRB, mid-September 2026). Owning only banks is owning one bet on interest rates and loans.
• By kind of asset: shares, deposits and bonds, retirement funds, a little gold.
• By time: buying a fixed amount every month (a SIP) instead of all at once means you buy more units when prices are low and fewer when they are high.
• Diversification is not owning many of the same thing. Ten microfinance companies are one bet, made ten times.

A share's price on NEPSE is simply the last price at which a buyer and a seller agreed. Buyers place orders at the most they will pay (bids); sellers place orders at the least they will take (asks). When the two meet, a trade happens, and that becomes the last traded price (LTP). The list of waiting orders at each price is the market depth.

Prices rise when more people want to buy than to sell at today's price, and fall the other way. In the long run what people will pay depends on what the company earns. In the short run it depends on news, rumour, interest rates, bank lending for shares, and mood.

• Bull market (बुल मार्केट): a rising market. Onlinekhabar's test is 20% up from the last low, or two months of continuous rise.
• Bear market (बियर मार्केट): more than 20% down from the last high, or two months of continuous fall.
• Correction: a short fall after a rise. The usual 10–20% line is a convention, not a rule.
• Crashes happen. NEPSE lost 75% between August 2008 and 2010/11, and 43% between August 2021 and September 2022. Both times it took years to recover.
• The NEPSE index (नेप्से परिसूचक) tracks the general price level of listed shares: 2,612.43 in mid-September 2026 (NRB) and 2,690 at the close on 30 October 2026. A sub-index does the same for one sector.
• Market capitalisation is price × number of shares. All 305 listed companies were worth Rs 4,496.72 billion in mid-September 2026, 68.13% of Nepal's GDP.

The order matters more than the choice of share. Investing before these steps means the first emergency forces you to sell, usually at the worst moment.

1. 1Know where your money goes. Write down every rupee for one month: rent, food, transport, family, phone, and the small things. You cannot plan a saving you cannot see.
2. 2Build an emergency fund of three to six months' spending in a savings account or a short fixed deposit at an NRB-licensed bank, where up to Rs 5 lakh per person per bank is guaranteed. Not in shares, not in a cooperative.
3. 3Clear costly debt. A loan at 15% or more costs more than almost any investment can be expected to earn. Paying it off is a guaranteed return at that rate.
4. 4Insure what would ruin you. Health cover, and term life cover if anyone depends on your income. Premiums are deductible from taxable income up to Rs 20,000 (health) and Rs 40,000 (life) a year.
5. 5Write your goals down with a date and an amount: a motorbike in two years, a course in three, a house deposit in ten, retirement at 60. The date decides where each one's money can go.
6. 6Then invest, a fixed amount, every month. Start small, learn how each piece works, and add as your income grows.

A savings account pays a low rate on money you can withdraw any day. A fixed deposit (मुद्दती निक्षेप) locks money for a term, from three months to several years, at a set rate. A recurring deposit takes a fixed sum every month for a term. In Kartik 2083 the top individual FD rate at 20 commercial banks ran from 3.7% to 4.5%, an average of 4.013%. Rates have fallen fast: NRB's weighted average deposit rate at commercial banks was 3.11% in mid-September 2026, against 3.96% a year earlier.

Banks set their own rates, change them once a month and publish next month's before the Nepali month starts. They are low in 2026 because banks hold more cash than they can lend: the 91-day Treasury bill paid 1.35% in mid-September 2026.

• After tax, an FD at 4.013% pays you 3.77%. Against 6.34% inflation, that is a loss of buying power of about 2.4% a year.
• The guarantee is per bank. Above Rs 5 lakh, splitting deposits between banks keeps each part covered. It covers individuals' current, savings and fixed accounts, not companies' deposits.
• Remittance accounts often pay more. One bank adds at least 1% to its term-deposit rate for money sent from abroad, with proof.
• Rates change every month. Check the bank's own notice before you open a deposit, and ask what it deducts if you break the deposit early.

A bond (ऋणपत्र) is a loan you make: you lend money for a fixed term and receive interest, then your money back. When the borrower is the government, the risk of not being repaid is as low as it gets in Nepal. Since 2081/82 the Public Debt Management Office (PDMO), not NRB, runs government borrowing at home.

A debenture (डिबेन्चर) is the same kind of loan made to a company, in Nepal usually a bank. Most of an issue is sold privately; part goes to the public through an application like an IPO. Debentures and development bonds are listed on NEPSE and can be sold there, though few trade.

• The two savings bonds above sold in Kartik and Mangsir 2082 and have closed. PDMO had listed no new savings bond for 2083/84 by 1 November 2026. Watch pdmo.gov.np for the next one; you apply through its DOMS system and Investor Portal.
• Rates have fallen with deposit rates. Citizen bonds paid 11.5% in early 2023 and 7.5% in November 2024.
• Interest on bonds and debentures is taxed at 6% for individuals, like bank interest.
• Bonds pay a fixed rate. If rates rise after you buy, a listed bond's market price falls; if you hold to the end, you still get the full amount back.

A share (शेयर, also written सेयर) is one unit of ownership in a company. Owning one makes you a shareholder (शेयरधनी): you own a slice of the business, vote at its general meeting, and receive your part of whatever profit it pays out as a dividend. If the company grows its profit for years, the share usually becomes worth more; if it fails, the share can become worth very little.

Shares are first sold in the primary market (प्राथमिक बजार): an IPO when a company first sells to the public, an FPO when a listed company sells more, and right shares offered to existing holders. After listing they change hands between investors in the secondary market (दोस्रो बजार), on the Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE), through a licensed broker. The company does not receive money from secondary-market trades.

• Face value (अंकित मूल्य) is the nominal value printed on a share: Rs 100 for most NEPSE companies. Market price is what it trades at, often several times that.
• Ordinary shares (साधारण शेयर) vote and are paid after everyone else. Promoter shares (संस्थापक सेयर), held by founders, cannot be sold for three years after the IPO.
• A shareholder's return has two parts: dividends (लाभांश), paid in cash or as bonus shares, and any rise in price. Both depend in the end on profit.
• Owning a share is not lending. A bank pays its depositors and debenture holders before its shareholders see anything.

A mutual fund (सामूहिक लगानी कोष) pools money from many people. A licensed fund manager invests it across many shares, bonds and deposits, and each investor owns units (इकाई) of the pool, usually at a face value of Rs 10. You get diversification and a professional manager for a small amount of money; in return you pay fees and accept the manager's choices.

NAV (net asset value, खुद सम्पत्ति मूल्य) is the fund's assets minus its liabilities, divided by its units. A NAV of Rs 11.26 means each Rs 10 unit is now worth Rs 11.26. Investopaper's table for Asar-end 2083 lists 61 schemes with published NAVs, at least 13 of them open-ended.

• Fees are capped by SEBON: the fund manager up to 1.5% of NAV a year, the depository and the supervisor up to 0.20% each. No fee may be charged on buying. An open-ended fund may charge up to 1.5% when you sell back, usually less the longer you stay.
• Tax: returns a fund pays to an individual are taxed at 5%, withheld and final. Which capital gains rate applies when you sell units at a gain is not settled: sources disagree, and none was written after the 2026 changes.
• To start you need a demat account (your BOID), KYC with citizenship or passport, and a bank account for the payments.
• A fund can lose money. Its NAV moves with what it holds. It is not a deposit and is not guaranteed.
• The record: 14 closed-end schemes that have matured paid an average of 17.12% a year in dividends (a simple average of all dividends over their lives, ShareSansar, May 2026). One returned its investors' money at a NAV of Rs 9.58, below the Rs 10 they paid. No source measured open-ended funds' growth over three to five years.
• New kinds are coming. SEBON's draft Mutual Fund Policy 2083 (October 2026) proposes ETFs, bond and money-market funds and property trusts. It is a draft.

A SIP (systematic investment plan, व्यवस्थित लगानी योजना) puts a fixed amount into an open-ended fund on a schedule: monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly. Each payment buys units at that day's NAV, so you buy more units when prices are low and fewer when they are high. Many funds start at Rs 1,000 a month, taken from your bank by a debit mandate. Stopping a SIP stops future payments; units already bought stay yours.

The table answers the question people ask Google most: how much a Rs 1,000 SIP becomes. The rates are illustrations; a fund's NAV moves with the market and can fall.

• Rs 5,000 a month for ten years (Rs 6,00,000 paid) becomes Rs 9,20,828 at 8%, Rs 10,32,760 at 10% and Rs 11,61,695 at 12%.
• For twenty years (Rs 12,00,000 paid): Rs 29,64,736, Rs 38,28,485 and Rs 49,95,740. Doubling the time more than triples the gain at 10% and 12%.
• The convention: payments at the start of each month, the yearly rate divided by 12, before fees and tax. A calculator that uses the true monthly rate gives slightly less.
• Missing a payment is not a disaster; check the fund's own rule on how many it allows before it stops the plan.

Fine gold was Rs 2,72,000 a tola (11.664 grams) on 1 November 2026, 19.8% below its record of Rs 3,39,300 on 29 January 2026. Silver was Rs 3,650 a tola. The daily rate is set by the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association (FENEGOSIDA) from the international dollar price at about 10:30 am, the dollar exchange rate, the customs duty, the importing bank's premium (0.25–0.7%) and a dealer margin of about 0.5–0.7%. In February 2026, with the duty at 10%, that made gold about 11% dearer in Nepal than abroad. The budget of 31 May 2026 doubled the duty to 20% (and dropped a 2% luxury tax). Only banks may import gold.

Gold pays no interest and no dividend. Its return is only the change in price, which in Nepal is the dollar price of gold multiplied by the dollar's price in rupees. That is why it protects buying power when the rupee weakens and the world is frightened, and why it can fall for years when neither happens.

• The gold/silver ratio is how many tola of silver buy one tola of gold: 74.5 on 1 November 2026.
• No rule fixes making charges. A directive has been pending since 2070 BS. Ask for the charge in writing before buying. Work out a bill in the gold price calculator, and see how making charges work.
• Digital gold: no NRB-approved product was found. Buying gold through a foreign app runs into the ban on residents investing abroad.
• Bringing gold home: a returning passenger may bring 25 g of jewellery (men) or 50 g (women) duty-free. How much more may be brought with duty is reported differently by different sources. Individuals may not import gold bars.
• Selling old gold: no source gives a standard deduction. With a bill, shops usually exchange it for new jewellery of equal value; for cash, some amount is deducted, and in 2026 many dealers paid sellers by cheque in 15–20 days while the gold was melted and purified.
• KYC above Rs 5 lakh: since December 2025 buying or selling gold worth more than Rs 5 lakh needs KYC, and many shops refuse to buy gold without a bill.
• Storage costs money or carries risk: a bank locker has a fee, and gold at home can be stolen.

Land has made many Nepali families rich, and that memory is why so many treat it as the safest investment. It can be a good one. But it is the least liquid thing most people will ever own, it costs a great deal to buy and sell, and its price does not always rise: about three fifths of bank loans in Nepal are secured on land and buildings, and the property market was described as stagnant in July 2026.

• Exempt (IRD FAQ, 2080/81, not rechecked since): land or a private building sold for under Rs 10 lakh, and a private home you have owned and lived in for 10 years or more.
• Registration fees are set by each province's Finance Act, so they differ by place. See land registration fees in Nepal.
• Tax and fees use the government valuation, set each year by local bodies, not the price you paid.
• Plotting rules change. Plotting was stopped for about ten months under the Land Use Regulations 2022, and land bought to split and sell was stuck.
• A licence is now needed for land deals above Rs 3 crore, under an amendment to the Land Revenue Act (law-firm note).
• It cannot be sold in part, or quickly. A share sells in a day; a plot can take a year.

Retirement funds are where most salaried Nepalis already invest without thinking about it. Money goes in from each salary, often matched by the employer, grows for decades, and is cut from your taxable income on the way in.

• The tax deduction: contributions to approved retirement funds (SSF, CIT, EPF and others together) are deducted from taxable income up to Rs 5 lakh a year or one third of assessable income, whichever is lower. One combined limit, not one per fund.
• Payouts from an approved retirement fund are taxed at 5% of the gain, final.
• SSF contributors do not pay the 1% tax on the first income slab.
• The rates have fallen with bank rates: EPF paid 7.5% in 2080/81 and 5.5% in 2081/82; CIT cut its rates during 2026.
• Read more in the SSF guide, and see your own deductions in the income tax calculator.

Insurance exists to replace what you cannot afford to lose: your income if you die, your savings if you fall seriously ill. Nepal has 37 insurers: 14 life, 14 non-life, 7 micro and 2 reinsurers, regulated by the Nepal Insurance Authority (नेपाल बीमा प्राधिकरण).

Most life policies sold in Nepal are endowment policies, which mix a small amount of cover with saving. They pay at death or at the end of the term, plus bonuses. A term policy pays only if you die within the term; it costs far less for the same cover, because there is no saving inside it.

• Deductions from taxable income, 2083/84: life insurance premium up to Rs 40,000 a year (a couple shares one limit), health insurance up to Rs 20,000, home insurance up to Rs 10,000.
• A bonus of Rs 50 per Rs 1,000 is not 5%. It is 5% of the sum assured, not of what you paid. Ask for the policy's yield on premiums in writing before you buy.
• Gains from endowment insurance are taxed at 5%, final.
• Buy cover first, then invest the difference is the usual advice. Whether an endowment's forced saving is worth its lower return to you is your call.

At 23 your largest asset is not your savings. It is the forty years of income ahead of you. A course, a certificate or a better job that raises your pay by Rs 5,000 a month adds Rs 60,000 a year. To earn that from a fixed deposit at 3.77% after tax, you would need about Rs 15,90,575 in the bank.

That is why the best return available to most young people is in their own earning power: a skill employers pay for, English, accounting software, a licence, a trade. It compounds too, because each raise is built on the last.

• Spend on skills that employers name in job ads. Read a week of listings in your field and note what keeps appearing.
• A small business can return more than any market, and can also lose everything. Start it with money you could lose, not with borrowed money or your emergency fund.
• Your CV is part of the investment. A clear one gets the interview that gets the raise. Make a CV and see who is hiring.

Every few years a new way to get rich quickly sweeps through Nepal's phones. Some are illegal outright; some are legal but have cost ordinary savers their savings. Here is where each stands on 1 November 2026.

• "Guaranteed" high returns. Nothing legal in Nepal guarantees more than a government bond.
• Returns paid from new members' money, or a bonus for bringing in others.
• Pressure to decide today, or to keep it secret from your family.
• No licence you can check. Banks and finance companies are on NRB's list, brokers and fund managers on SEBON's, insurers on the Insurance Authority's.
• Money sent abroad or to a personal account, or paid in crypto.
• Which investment gives 50% return? None that is legal and safe. 50% a year doubles money in under two years; anyone promising it is either taking extreme risk with your money or taking your money.

One table for the whole of Part 2. "Return now" is what each pays or has paid recently; for shares, funds, gold and land there is no rate, only a history, which the next two chapters look at.

Measured by price, gold has beaten the NEPSE index in Nepal over five, ten and about twenty years; the index came out ahead only over fifteen, starting from a crash. Rs 1,00,000 of gold bought on 18 October 2021 was worth about Rs 2,97,919 at the rate of 1 November 2026, 24.2% a year. The same money in the index, on the same day, was worth about Rs 1,04,157, 0.8% a year, while prices in general rose 5.3% a year.

That is the record. Whether it repeats depends on why it happened, and the reasons for gold's run are not ones that can continue for ever.

• Why gold rose so fast. From mid-July 2021 to mid-July 2026 gold in dollars rose 2.19 times (US$1,823.75 to US$3,993.55 an ounce, NRB), the dollar rose from Rs 119.04 to Rs 153.72, and the customs duty moved from 10% to 20% on 31 May 2026. A world price that more than doubles, a weaker rupee and a doubled duty all at once are not a pattern to count on.
• Gold can stand still for years. It set a record of Rs 55,800 a tola in December 2011, was Rs 49,500 in July 2015 and Rs 56,000 in October 2016: five years for nothing. It has fallen 19.8% since its record of 29 January 2026.
• Shares fall harder. NEPSE fell from 1,175.38 in August 2008 to 292.31 in 2010/11, 75%, after a property slump; and from 3,198.6 in August 2021 to 1,815.13 in September 2022, 43%, after NRB capped loans against shares and interest rates rose. Bought at the 2021 peak, the index was still 3.2% a year down by October 2026.
• The 15-year figure flatters shares, because 2011 was near the bottom of a crash. The start date changes the answer more than anything else in this table.
• The index leaves out dividends, which have been a large part of what Nepali shareholders actually received; no total-return index exists to measure them. The gold rate leaves out the making charge on jewellery and the deduction when you sell, and pays nothing while you wait.
• The 15-year gold start is from a blog (Rs 44,150 on 19 July 2011). The Kathmandu Post implies about Rs 48,000 that month, which would make gold's figure 12.6% a year instead.

Silver moves like gold, only more. From its record of Rs 7,505 a tola on 29 January 2026 it had fallen 51.4% to Rs 3,650 by 1 November 2026; gold fell 19.8% over the same days. Over the long run the two have ended close together: from 17 July 2015 to 1 November 2026, gold grew 16.3% a year and silver 16.2%.

Silver is a much smaller market than gold, and more of it is used by industry: in solar panels, electronics and, in the 2026 boom, the data centres behind AI. That demand comes and goes with the economy, which is why its price swings further in both directions.

• The gold/silver ratio fell from about 74 to 45.2 at the January 2026 peak and returned to 74.5: silver overshot gold on the way up and gave it all back. A low ratio has meant silver is dear against gold; a high one, cheap. It is a description, not a signal anyone can time.
• Silver is bulky. One tola of gold's worth of silver weighed about 0.87 kg on 1 November 2026. Storing a lakh's worth is a different problem from storing a lakh of gold.
• The same duty applies: 20% on silver since 31 May 2026 (10% before). Individuals may not import gold or silver bars.
• Silver imports overtook gold for the first time in the year to mid-July 2026: Rs 32.74 billion of silver against Rs 29.15 billion of gold (Kathmandu Post).
• For most people silver is a small, speculative holding, not a substitute for gold's role as a store of value.

A fixed deposit tells you today what you will have. Shares and mutual funds do not, and that uncertainty is what you are paid for. Rs 1,00,000 for five years: in a fixed deposit at 3.77% after tax it becomes Rs 1,20,339. If a mutual fund earned 10% a year it would become Rs 1,61,051, and shares earning 12% a year Rs 1,76,234. But if the shares earned 12% for four years and then fell 20% in the fifth, you would have Rs 1,25,882, still more than the deposit.

Deposits have not always paid this little. NRB's average rate on commercial banks' fixed deposits was 10.12% in mid-July 2022 and 10.13% in 2023, and banks offered individuals up to 12% until January 2023. A one-year deposit renewed every July from 2021 at NRB's average rate turned Rs 1,00,000 into about Rs 1,46,038 after tax by 2026, 7.9% a year. Over the same five years the NEPSE index fell from 2,883.4 to 2,597.8. The index leaves out dividends, but for those five years the deposit was the better place to be.

• The deposit wins when you need the money soon, or when a fall would force you to sell.
• Funds and shares win over long periods, if company profits grow faster than prices in general, which is what has happened in most markets over most decades. Not every decade.
• Most people should hold both: the deposit for safety and the near future, funds or shares for growth.

A mutual fund buys diversification and a manager's time. You pay for it every year. One open-ended fund's fees come to 1.57% of NAV a year (management 1.25%, depository 0.2%, supervisor 0.12%). On Rs 5,000 a month for 20 years, a fund that earned 10% before fees would end about Rs 6,99,094 below the same investments held at no cost. The question is whether you would do better than the fund, after your own commission, DP charges and mistakes.

• Open-ended funds are bought and sold at NAV through the manager. Closed-ended ones trade on NEPSE, often below their NAV.
• A middle way: a SIP for most of your money, and a small share account to learn on.
• Check a fund on its own factsheet: what it holds, its fees, its exit load and its NAV history. A fund's name is not a guide to what it holds.

Land is real, visible and familiar, and it can be lived on or rented out. Shares are paper, move every day and need learning. Those differences are why each suits different people, but they are not reasons why one returns more: that depends on the price you pay and how long you hold.

• There is no land price index in Nepal. A much-repeated figure of 27.7% a year for Kathmandu valley was quoted by Nepali Times in 2022 from an NRB report that could not be found, and registered values are far below market prices, so official records cannot measure land's return. Anyone quoting a precise figure for land is guessing.
• Land's past is not its future. The decades when Kathmandu land rose fastest were also decades of fast migration into the valley.
• A house you live in is a home first. Its value matters when you sell it, and most people never do.
• Land with a loan on it can fall below the loan. About three fifths of bank lending in Nepal is secured on land and buildings.

An IPO sells shares at Rs 100, usually below where they will later trade, which is why so many apply and why the lottery is so long: about 17% of applicants won in Sanigad Hydro's issue. The secondary market sells any listed share at today's price, to anyone, at any time NEPSE is open.

• Applying for IPOs costs little: the money is only blocked, and refunded if you lose. It is a reasonable habit, not a plan.
• A share that lists far above Rs 100 often falls back once early winners sell. Selling on listing day and holding for years are different decisions.
• Many IPO companies are hydropower projects still being built, and 24 listed hydropower companies made losses in July 2026. Read the prospectus.

Five bodies stand between you and a share. Knowing which does what tells you where to go when something goes wrong.

• NRB regulates the banks, finance companies and microfinance institutions that make up half the market, and sets the rules for loans against shares.
• A TMS or order problem goes to your broker first. A demat or MeroShare problem goes to your DP. A complaint about a broker that will not pay goes to NEPSE's surveillance department, and a market-wide complaint to SEBON.

You need four linked accounts: a bank account, a demat account (डिम्याट खाता) that holds your shares electronically, MeroShare to apply for IPOs and manage your holdings, and a broker account with TMS to buy and sell on NEPSE. Applying for IPOs needs only the first three.

• Costs (a DP's schedule): demat opening Rs 50 once; demat maintenance Rs 100 a year; MeroShare Rs 50 a year. Some DPs waive the opening fee.
• Renew every year. The fee is due by the end of Asar. In 2026 CDSC set Shrawan 15 as the last day and froze unpaid accounts from Shrawan 16; a frozen account cannot apply for issues or settle trades.
• Minors can hold demat accounts, operated by a guardian; about a million do.
• Nepalis working abroad can apply in the 10% IPO quota reserved for them, with valid labour approval.

1. 1Have a bank account in your own name at a bank that offers C-ASBA (43 do), so IPO money can be blocked in it.
2. 2Open a demat account with any DP, often your own bank's capital company. You need your citizenship and, since Shrawan 1, 2083, your national identity (NID) number, a photo, and your bank details. Some banks and DPs open it online with video KYC. You receive a 16-digit BOID.
3. 3Ask the DP to open MeroShare at the same time, and log in at meroshare.cdsc.com.np. Set up your bank account for C-ASBA inside it.
4. 4Open a trading account with a broker when you want to buy and sell in the market. The broker links your client code to your BOID and gives you a TMS login.
5. 5Keep KYC up to date. A changed address or phone must reach the DP and broker, or orders and transfers can fail.

An IPO (प्रारम्भिक सार्वजनिक निष्काशन) is a company's first sale of shares to the public, almost always at Rs 100 a share. Because IPO shares usually list above that, most issues are many times oversubscribed, and the shares are shared out by lottery (गोलाप्रथा).

• The odds are long. Sanigad Hydro's general public issue in June 2026 drew 27,27,515 valid applications; 4,67,400 won 10 units each, about 17%.
• The minimum is 10 units (since 2019). The maximum is set by each issuer: 20,000 or 50,000 units in 2026 issues. Applying for more than 10 does not raise your chance in a lottery where everyone gets 10.
• Quotas: up to 10% for residents of a hydropower project's area, 10% of the public portion for Nepalis working abroad, 2–3% for employees and 5% for mutual funds, in 2026 issues.
• IPOs paused for months in 2026. SEBON approved none between 27 April and early October, with 108 companies waiting. A draft eligibility directive was published in September.
• FPOs use the same route. Right shares go only to existing holders, in a ratio, usually at Rs 100. Auctions of unsold rights or promoter shares take sealed bids, often with a minimum of 100 units.

1. 1Watch for an open issue on CDSC's current issue list, in MeroShare under My ASBA, or in the news. Read who the company is in its prospectus (विवरणपत्र).
2. 2Apply in MeroShare: My ASBA, Apply for Issue, choose the company, enter the number of units (at least 10), your bank and CRN, tick the declaration, and confirm with your transaction PIN.
3. 3The money is blocked, not taken. It stays in your bank account but you cannot spend it until the allotment.
4. 4Check the result on iporesult.cdsc.com.np or in MeroShare after the lottery. Winners in an oversubscribed issue get 10 units.
5. 5If you get nothing, the block is released. If you win, the money is taken and the shares appear in your demat account; you can sell them once the company is listed.

Buying and selling listed shares always goes through a broker. In TMS you place an order with the company's symbol, the quantity and your price. It waits in the order book until someone on the other side matches it.

Since early April 2026 NEPSE trades Monday to Friday, 11:00 to 15:00, with a pre-open session from 10:30 to 10:45. Trades settle on T+2, two working days after the trade.

• The 15% band: one share may move at most 15% from the previous close in a day. A share stuck at the upper limit has more buyers than sellers at that price; the queue does not mean you will be filled.
• Board lot 10 shares. Smaller quantities are odd lots, which trade too and show in market depth since July 2025.
• Collateral: brokers set how much you may buy against the money you keep with them.
• Margin trading through brokers began under a directive of February 2026: 30% initial margin, 20% maintenance, only for shares that meet profit and size tests. Borrowing to buy shares magnifies losses as much as gains.
• Selling in detail, with every screen and what goes wrong: how to sell shares in Nepal.

Every buy and every sale pays broker commission (0.36% up to Rs 50,000, 0.33% to Rs 5 lakh, then less), a 0.015% SEBON fee and a Rs 25 DP charge. A sale at a gain also pays capital gains tax. Here are two purchases at Rs 500 a share, sold at Rs 600, computed by our share calculator's own code.

• Small trades cost more, proportionally. Bought and sold at the same Rs 500, the Rs 10,000 trade loses Rs 125.00 (1.25%) to charges; the Rs 50,000 trade loses Rs 425.00 (0.85%). The two Rs 25 DP charges weigh most on small trades.
• Trading often multiplies the charges. Ten round trips a year on the small trade would cost Rs 1,250 in charges, against Rs 377 that the same money would earn in a year in a fixed deposit after tax.
• Holding over 365 days cuts the tax by a quarter, from 5% to 3.75% of the gain.

For a resident individual, most investment income in Nepal is taxed at a flat rate, withheld before you are paid, and final: you do not add it to your salary or file anything more for it. The rates below are those in force on 1 November 2026.

• Capital gains tax on shares changed twice in 2026. The budget raised it from 5% and 7.5% to 7.5% and 10% from mid-July; the Council of Ministers cut it to 3.75% and 5% under section 18(1) of the Finance Act 2083, in a notice published in the Nepal Gazette on 22 September (as reported by ShareSansar). Many pages still show one of the older pairs.
• Losses: each sale is taxed on its own. The Ministry of Finance's September action plan proposes taxing only net yearly gains, with losses set off against gains; it was not in force by late October.
• The 365 days run from the day the shares reached your demat account. Lots bought at different times are counted separately.
• Bonus and right shares take their face value (Rs 100) as their cost, by an IRD instruction of 2075.

Companies announce a dividend as a percentage of face value, not of the share price. A "10% dividend" on a Rs 100 share is Rs 10 a share, whatever the share trades at.

So a 10% cash dividend on a share priced at Rs 400 is Rs 10, a yield of 2.5%, not 10%. After the 5% tax you receive Rs 9.50 a share.

• A bonus share does not make you richer by itself. NEPSE adjusts the price on book-close day using the last traded price before it: price ÷ (1 + bonus ratio). Your holding is worth the same; only future dividends on more shares add value.
• A right share needs money. If you do not subscribe, the price adjustment still happens and you are diluted. Decide before the deadline.
• Buying just before book closure for the dividend rarely works: the price usually falls by about the dividend after book closure, and you pay tax on the dividend.
• The tax on bonus shares is collected in practice at 5%: Nepal Re's 5% bonus with 0.2632% cash is 5% of the 5.2632% total. The rule itself is not stated clearly in any source we read.

Every listed company must file an unaudited quarterly report with SEBON within 30 days of the quarter's end, and publish it in a national daily. Nepal's quarters end at Asoj end (mid-October), Poush end (mid-January), Chaitra end (mid-April) and Asar end (mid-July). A bank's report has six parts: the balance sheet (statement of financial position), the profit and loss statement, other comprehensive income ending in EPS, ratios under NRB directives, the statement of distributable profit, and a Nepali disclosure with annualised EPS, P/E, net worth per share and the quarter's trading record.

Find them on the company's website, in the newspaper it publishes in, and reposted on ShareSansar and similar sites. The quarterly summary usually has no cash-flow statement; look for it in the full interim report or the annual report. A company that files late (98 of 226 did in 2017) is telling you something.

• Annualised EPS in Nepali reports doubles a half-year's profit and so on. A seasonal business looks better or worse than it is.
• Unaudited figures change. The audited accounts approved at the AGM, which must be held within six months of the year's end, can differ from the fourth-quarter report.
• A profit is not a dividend. Himalayan Bank's fourth-quarter statement for 2080/81 showed a net profit of Rs 1.48 arba and distributable profit of minus Rs 9.84 arba: on paper it made money, and it had nothing it could pay out.

Ratios turn a company's accounts into numbers you can compare with other companies and with its own past. Each one below is worked on one made-up bank: net profit Rs 2 arba a year, 10 crore shares (Rs 10 arba paid-up at Rs 100), shareholders' equity Rs 20 arba, total assets Rs 250 arba, share price Rs 400, cash dividend 10%.

• Sector context, July 2026 (ShareSansar): commercial banks' median P/E 18.7 and P/B 1.4; hydropower 64.0 and 4.3; life insurance 57.1 and 3.8; non-life insurance 107.6 and 3.0; microfinance 46.6 and 5.7; manufacturing 46.6 and 4.8. The whole market's median P/E was about 54.
• Commercial banks' average EPS was Rs 19.96 in 2082/83, up from Rs 16.42 (Kantipur).
• P/E means nothing when EPS is negative or close to zero, which was true of 24 listed hydropower companies in July 2026.
• A bonus share lowers EPS without anything changing in the business. Compare EPS adjusted for the larger share count.

Banks are half of NEPSE's value, and Nepal Rastra Bank sets limits on the numbers that show whether one is safe. Each quarterly report prints them. The question is whether they are comfortably inside the limits, and which way they are moving.

• A loan is non-performing when its repayment is more than three months overdue. Substandard (3–6 months) needs a 25% provision, doubtful (6–12 months) 50%, loss (over a year) 100%.
• Coverage: total loan-loss provision ÷ NPL. 100% or more means the bad loans are fully provided for.
• Is NPL rising while profit rises? Profit may rest on interest booked but not received, which NRB removes before dividends.
• 2082/83 picture: commercial banks' net profit Rs 69.78 arba, up 32%; average EPS Rs 19.96; average NPL 5.35%.

Each sector earns its money differently, so each needs its own questions. The medians below are from ShareSansar's count of 16–17 July 2026.

• Hydropower: is the plant running or still being built (a project under construction earns nothing and carries flood, landslide and cost risk)? What PPA has it signed with the Nepal Electricity Authority, and is it take-or-pay (NEA pays for contracted energy whether it uses it or not) or take-and-pay (only for what it takes)? A typical run-of-river PPA has paid Rs 8.40 a unit in the dry season and Rs 4.80 in the wet. Does it generate what the contract assumes? How much debt, and when is it due? When does the promoters' three-year lock-in end?
• Insurance: life insurers' profit rests on an actuarial valuation of what they owe policyholders; non-life on claims against premiums. The Insurance Authority requires a solvency ratio of at least 1.5; a risk-based capital directive from 2084/85 restricts dividends for insurers that fail it.
• Microfinance: lends small sums to many borrowers, so bad loans are the main risk. NRB caps collateral-based loans at Rs 15 lakh. The sector's median P/B of 5.7 was the highest of any: investors were paying nearly six times book value.
• Manufacturing: no regulator sets its ratios. Check revenue growth, margins, how long stock and unpaid bills sit, debt and interest cover, how much capacity is used, and dependence on imported raw materials.

A share is worth the cash it will pay its owners over its life, counted in today's rupees. Nobody knows that number. Every method below is an estimate built on assumptions, so treat the answer as a range, not a price tag. The same made-up bank: EPS Rs 20, book value Rs 200 a share, price Rs 400, last cash dividend Rs 10.

• The 22.5 in the Graham number is Benjamin Graham's limits multiplied: a P/E of at most 15 and a P/B of at most 1.5.
• A two-point change in the return you require moved the dividend-discount value by 40%. Small assumptions make large differences, which is why a margin of safety exists.
• Use several methods, and be suspicious when they disagree widely.

Technical analysis studies price and volume charts to guess where a price will go next: support and resistance levels, moving averages, the relative strength index (RSI), candle patterns. On NEPSE it is popular, sold in courses and pushed in groups, and floorsheet data showing which broker bought and sold every trade feeds a whole industry of broker-watching.

Charts can show you what has happened: how far a share has run, how heavy trading is, where buyers stepped in before. They cannot show you whether a company is profitable, whether its loans are going bad or whether its price is high for what it earns. For someone investing for years, fundamental analysis decides what to own; charts at most help with when to buy it.

• It works best in liquid markets with many traders. Thinly traded NEPSE shares can be moved by a few large orders, and patterns are easy to see after the fact.
• Short-term trading multiplies costs: every round trip pays commission, SEBON fees, two DP charges and 5% tax on any gain.
• If a course promises a strategy that wins most of the time, ask why its sellers teach it instead of using it.

1. 1What does the company do, and which sector is it in? Which regulator watches it: NRB, the Insurance Authority, or none?
2. 2Is it making money in its core business? Net profit and annualised EPS for the last four quarters, adjusted for bonus shares.
3. 3Is the profit turning into cash and distributable profit? For banks, check the distributable-profit statement for a deficit.
4. 4Is the share expensive? P/E and P/B against its own history and the sector median; the Graham number.
5. 5Is the return on equity good enough? Compare ROE with what a fixed deposit pays now.
6. 6How much debt does it carry, and can it pay the interest? Above all for hydropower and manufacturing.
7. 7For a bank or microfinance: CAR at least 11%, CD ratio at most 90%, NPL and spread within limits, and the direction of each.
8. 8For hydropower: is the plant running, what PPA does it have, and does it generate as contracted?
9. 9For an insurer: is the solvency ratio comfortably above 1.5?
10. 10Are dividends real cash? Work out the yield on the market price, and separate cash from bonus.
11. 11What is coming that changes the share count or the price? A right share, bonus, book closure, the end of a promoter lock-in, an auction.
12. 12Does it file on time? A quarterly report more than 30 days late, or an AGM more than six months after the year's end, is a warning in itself.

• Buying on a tip from a group. By the time a share is being pushed on Telegram or TikTok, those who bought it first are looking for someone to sell to.
• Buying because the price is rising, and selling because it is falling. That is buying high and selling low, by design.
• Borrowing to buy shares. A loan against shares or a broker's margin turns a 30% fall into a forced sale. NEPSE has fallen that far before.
• No emergency fund, so the first hospital bill means selling shares in a bad month.
• Treating IPOs as free money. Most applications win nothing, and a share that lists at three times its price can halve within months.
• Trading too often. Each round trip pays commission, fees and tax; small accounts lose most to charges.
• Everything in one sector, usually the one that rose most last year.
• Confusing a bonus share with income. The price is adjusted down by the same proportion.
• Ignoring inflation, and feeling safe with all savings in a deposit that loses buying power every year.
• Chasing returns that sound too good: cooperatives paying far above banks, crypto, forex, schemes.

These show the order of steps for three take-home pays, with round numbers. They are illustrations to learn from, not advice for you: your family, debts, goals and job security change everything. Spending is what is left after saving.

• The emergency fund comes first, in a savings account or short fixed deposit.
• IPO applications need Rs 1,000 blocked for each; keep it in the deposit, not in spending money.
• Health insurance before any of this if your employer does not provide it.
• If your employer pays into the SSF, 11% of your basic pay is already being invested, with 20% more from the employer.
• Raise the amounts with every raise, before the new money is spent.

• Official sources first: sebon.gov.np (rules, approved issues, licensed firms), nepalstock.com (prices, notices, company disclosures), cdsc.com.np (MeroShare, IPO results, DP list), nrb.org.np (inflation, interest rates, bank rules), pdmo.gov.np (government bonds).
• Read one quarterly report a week and work out EPS, P/E, P/B and ROE yourself before looking them up.
• Keep a paper portfolio for three months: write down what you would buy and why, and see what happens before risking money.
• Read an AGM notice and a prospectus from start to finish.
• Books worth the time: The Intelligent Investor (Benjamin Graham) for value and margin of safety; The Psychology of Money (Morgan Housel) for behaviour; A Random Walk Down Wall Street (Burton Malkiel) for why most active traders lag the market.
• Our tools: the share calculator, the gold price calculator, the EMI calculator for loans, and the income tax calculator for your deductions.

The Nepali terms are those used in the law (the Securities Act 2063), by NRB and SEBON, or in Onlinekhabar and Kantipur. Official texts spell शेयर; news often writes सेयर. Where no Nepali term was found in such a source, the English one is used in Nepali too.