Share market in Nepal for beginners: how it works and how to start

A share (सेयर) is one small piece of a company. Hold it and you own a matching slice of the company's profit, a vote at its general meeting, and the right to sell that slice to someone else. Most Nepali shares have a face value (अंकित मूल्य) of Rs 100, the amount printed on them; the price they trade at can be far above or below it.

The share market (सेयर बजार) is where those pieces change hands. In Nepal that is one place: the Nepal Stock Exchange, NEPSE (नेपाल स्टक एक्सचेन्ज, नेप्से). 305 companies were listed in mid-September 2026, worth Rs 4,496.72 billion together, about 68% of the country's yearly output (NRB). Banks, finance companies and insurers were 51.4% of that value, hydropower 17.8%.

People buy shares for two kinds of return: dividends, the part of profit a company pays out, and a higher price when they sell. Neither is promised. A company can pay nothing for years, and the whole market can fall: the NEPSE index lost 43% between August 2021 and September 2022, and on October 2026's last trading day it was still 16% below its record.

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

• SEBON, the Securities Board of Nepal (नेपाल धितोपत्र बोर्ड), set up in 1993, is the regulator under the Securities Act 2063. It approves IPOs and licenses the exchange, the depository, brokers, DPs, merchant bankers and fund managers. Its site lists every licensed firm.
• NEPSE is the only stock exchange: SEBON lists one. Trading began on 13 January 1994. It runs the system that matches orders and publishes the index.
• CDSC (CDS and Clearing Ltd) is the central depository. It holds every listed share electronically in its owner's name, settles trades, and runs MeroShare, C-ASBA and the IPO result site.
• Brokers (धितोपत्र दलाल): 90 licensed firms, members of NEPSE. Every order goes through one, usually online in its TMS.
• DPs (निक्षेप सदस्य): 124 depository participants, members of CDSC (banks' capital companies, brokers and others) that open and service demat accounts.
• Banks: 43 take part in C-ASBA, which blocks IPO money in your account. Nepal Rastra Bank regulates the banks and finance companies, the largest group on NEPSE, and sets the rules for loans against shares.

The primary market (प्राथमिक बजार) is where a company sells new shares to the public, through an IPO, almost always at Rs 100 a share. Your money goes to the company. In Nepal you apply in MeroShare, and when more people apply than there are shares, a lottery gives each winner 10 shares.

The secondary market (दोस्रो बजार) is NEPSE's daily trading, where those shares later pass from one investor to another at whatever price buyer and seller agree. The company gets nothing from these trades. You need a broker for it, and you decide the price and the timing.

Every price on NEPSE comes from orders. Buyers enter the most they will pay (a bid); sellers the least they will take (an ask). The waiting orders at each price are the market depth (मार्केट डेप्थ). When a buy price meets a sell price, NEPSE's system matches them and a trade happens. The price of the latest trade is the LTP (last traded price), the number apps show as a share's price.

So a price rises when more people want to buy than to sell at today's price, and falls the other way. Over years it follows what the company earns and pays out; over days, news, rumour, interest rates and mood.

Each day starts with a pre-open session, 10:30 to 10:45, where orders are collected and an opening price is found; since 20 April 2026 it may move at most 5% from the previous close. Continuous trading then runs from 11:00 to 15:00.

Two limits stop runaway prices. One share has a price band (उतारचढाव सीमा) of 15% up or down from the previous close: a Rs 500 share can trade only between Rs 425 and Rs 575 that day. The whole market has circuit breakers (सर्किट ब्रेकर): if the NEPSE index moves 5% within the first two hours, trading stops for 15 minutes; at 8%, the market closes for the day.

NEPSE trades Monday to Friday since early April 2026 (Chaitra 23, 2082), when Saturday and Sunday became the weekly holidays; before that it was Sunday to Thursday. The regular session runs 11:00 to 15:00, after the 10:30 to 10:45 pre-open, as news reports of NEPSE's decision give it. Public holidays close it: it was shut from Ashwin 31 to Kartik 8, 2083 for Dashain. NEPSE announces closures and any change of hours on nepalstock.com.

A trade is not finished when it matches. It settles on T+2: two working days after the trade day (T), the buyer's money reaches the seller and the shares reach the buyer's demat account. CDSC runs this. T+2 replaced T+3 in January 2021, so a page that says T+3 is years out of date.

The seller has one job in between: EDIS, the electronic delivery instruction in MeroShare (My EDIS) that releases the sold shares to the broker, due by T+1. A broker's page gives 9 pm on T+1 as the cut-off. Shares not delivered by noon on T+2 are closed out, and CDSC's settlement bylaws charge their value plus 20%.

Four accounts, opened in this order, each linked to the one before. The first three are enough to apply for IPOs; the fourth is for buying and selling on NEPSE.

1. 1A bank account in your own name, ideally at one of the 43 banks in C-ASBA, so IPO money can be blocked in it. Dividends are paid into the bank account linked to your demat account.
2. 2A demat account (डिम्याट खाता, हितग्राही खाता) with any of the 124 DPs, often your bank's capital company. It holds your shares electronically, in your name, at CDSC, under a 16-digit number called the BOID. Since 2083/03/08 (about 22 June 2026) you need your national identity (NID) card or number as well as citizenship. Several DPs open it online by video call.
3. 3MeroShare, CDSC's online service, usually opened by the DP at the same time. On first login you set a 4-digit transaction PIN. Ask your bank for a CRN (C-ASBA registration number) so you can apply for issues.
4. 4A broker account with TMS, the trade management system: choose one of the 90 licensed brokers, fill in its KYC form with your BOID and bank details, and it gives you a client code and a TMS login. Some brokers still ask for one visit; SEBON told NEPSE in August 2026 to link central KYC to TMS.

For most Nepalis the first share is an IPO (आईपीओ), an initial public offering. In MeroShare: My ASBA, then Apply for Issue, choose the issue, then Bank, Account Number, Branch, Applied Kitta (at least 10), CRN, tick the disclaimer, Proceed and your PIN. Rs 1,000 for 10 units at Rs 100 is blocked in your bank account, not taken, until the allotment.

The odds are long. Sanigad Hydro's general public issue in June 2026 had 27,27,515 valid applications; 4,67,400 got 10 units each, about 17%. Applying for more than 10 does not help when every winner gets 10, and it blocks more of your money.

• The result is on iporesult.cdsc.com.np with your 16-digit BOID, and under Application Report in MeroShare.
• You cannot withdraw an application once it is in. You can edit the quantity before the issue closes.
• Nepalis working abroad with labour approval have their own 10% quota, open for the first 4 days, if their remittance account has received at least Rs 50,000 from abroad in the last six months.
• IPO shares can be sold once the company is listed and the shares are in your demat account. Nothing guarantees they trade above what you paid.

Buying on NEPSE means placing an order in your broker's TMS. The picture follows the order from your money to your demat account; the steps are what you do on screen.

1. 1Put money with your broker as collateral. TMS shows the buying limit it gives you. Each broker sets its own rules for collateral and how you pay it in; ask yours before the first order.
2. 2Log in to TMS at your broker's address, which looks like tms45.nepsetms.com.np with your broker's number in place of 45, between 11:00 and 15:00 on a trading day.
3. 3Open Order Management, then Buy/Sell, and leave it on Buy. Enter the company's symbol, the quantity (kitta, in tens) and your price, and how long the order stays valid.
4. 4Choose the price with care. A price near the last traded price usually matches; one far below may never fill, and one outside the day's limits cannot trade.
5. 5Watch the order book. An order shows as open, partly traded or completed. You can change or cancel an open order; a completed one is final.
6. 6Pay any balance by T+1 as your broker asks, and keep the contract note (the broker's bill) it sends.
7. 7On T+2 the shares reach your demat account. Check My Shares in MeroShare, then confirm the purchase price under My Purchase Source, so the cost used for tax (the WACC) is right before you ever sell.

Every buy and every sale pays three charges. Broker commission on the whole amount: 0.36% up to Rs 50,000 (at least Rs 10), 0.33% up to Rs 5 lakh, 0.31% up to Rs 20 lakh, 0.27% up to Rs 1 crore and 0.24% above. The SEBON fee of 0.015%. And CDSC's DP charge of Rs 25 for each company, each way. A sale at a gain also pays capital gains tax. Buying charges add to your cost; selling charges come off what you receive.

Here are two first trades at Rs 500 a share: Rs 5,000 (10 shares, one board lot) and Rs 50,000 (100 shares). Each is sold at Rs 550, 10% higher, within a year or after one, and at Rs 450, 10% lower. Every figure comes from the code behind our share calculator.

• The charges take a bigger bite from small trades. On the Rs 5,000 trade the price rose Rs 500 in all; charges and tax left Rs 390.09 of it, 78%. On the Rs 50,000 trade 87% was left.
• Bought and sold at the same price, the small trade loses Rs 87.50 (1.75%) to charges and the large one Rs 425 (0.85%). Commission and the SEBON fee are the same share of both; the two Rs 25 DP charges are the whole difference.
• A loss pays no tax, but the charges are still taken, which is why the loss is bigger than the fall in price.

Capital gains tax (पुँजीगत लाभ कर) is the tax on the profit from selling shares. Since 22 September 2026 a resident individual pays 3.75% on listed shares held more than 365 days and 5% on shares held 365 days or less. The rates come from a Ministry of Finance notice in the Nepal Gazette under section 18(1) of the Finance Act 2083, as ShareSansar reported it; we did not read the Gazette itself. They changed twice in 2026, which is why pages disagree; the three sets are in the table below.

• You do not pay it yourself. At settlement CDSC works it out from your WACC (weighted average cost, purchase price plus buying charges) in MeroShare, and the broker pays you what is left. For an individual it is final: nothing more to declare. A wrong WACC means a wrong tax; correcting it after the event costs Rs 100 a company on CDSC's WACC Reset form.
• The 365 days run from the day the shares reached your demat account. Lots bought at different times are counted separately.
• Losses do not reduce the tax on other sales: each sale is taxed on its own. Letting losses count was proposed in September 2026 and was not in force by late October, the latest report we found.
• Cash dividends: 5%, kept back by the company, final.
• Bonus shares: in practice 5% too, usually collected through a small cash dividend declared for the tax. We found no rule that states it.
• These rates are for resident individuals. Companies and non-residents pay others, which no 2026 source we read gives.

Less than most people think, and more than Rs 100. Three things set the floor.

The board lot. NEPSE's normal trading unit is 10 shares for Rs 100 face-value shares (100 units for Rs 10 securities such as closed-ended fund units). So the smallest ordinary order is 10 times the price: Rs 2,500 for a share at Rs 250, Rs 10,000 for one at Rs 1,000.

Odd lots (अड लट), fewer than 10 shares, such as those a bonus leaves, trade separately. They have shown in NEPSE's market depth since July 2025, but the latest report we found said they did not show in TMS; ask your broker how to sell them.

The fixed charges. The Rs 25 DP charge and the Rs 10 minimum commission weigh most on small trades. The table at the end of this section shows what a round trip (bought and sold at the same price) costs at each size, and how far the price must rise just to get your money back.

• Rs 100: not usefully. A board lot of 10 would need a share priced at Rs 10, and the fixed charges on the buy alone would be Rs 35.01, 35% of it.
• Rs 1,000: enough to apply for an IPO, or for a monthly SIP in a mutual fund (one fund takes Rs 500).
• Rs 10,000: one or two board lots of a mid-priced share; a round trip costs 1.25%.
• Rs 50,000 and more: enough to own a few companies in different sectors, so one bad company cannot sink the whole.

The NEPSE index (नेप्से परिसूचक) is one number for the price level of the listed shares. When the news says "NEPSE fell 30 points", it means this index. It counts prices only, not dividends, so it understates what holders earned. It was 2,612.43 in mid-September 2026 (NRB) and 2,690.15 at the close on October 2026's last trading day.

Its record is 3,198.60 on 18 August 2021. It fell to 1,815.13 by 25 September 2022, 43% down, and has not been back since. Over the chart's 10.7 years it went from 1,220.70 to 2,690.15, about 7.6% a year before dividends.

• Sub-indices (उपसमूह) do the same for one sector, such as banking or hydropower. Banks, finance companies and insurers are about half the market's value, so they move the main index most.
• Turnover (कारोबार रकम) is the rupee value traded in a day. Rs 8.89 billion on 30 October 2026 was the highest since 16 April. A rise on heavy turnover says more than one on thin turnover.
• Volume is the number of shares traded, counted in kitta (कित्ता); transactions is the number of trades.
• Market capitalisation (बजार पुँजीकरण) is price × number of shares, for one company or the whole market.
• Floorsheet (फ्लोरसिट): NEPSE's record of every trade, with the buying and selling brokers' numbers, published after the market closes.

Once you own shares, the company may give you cash, more shares, or the right to buy more. All three are announced as a percentage of the Rs 100 face value, not of the price, and go to whoever holds the share on the last trading day before the book closure (बुक क्लोज) date. On the next trading day NEPSE adjusts the price for a bonus or a right. The table works each on the 10 shares bought at Rs 500 above.

• A bonus does not make you richer by itself: more shares at a lower price, the same value. It is taxed at 5% of face value in practice.
• A right needs money. If you do not subscribe, the price adjustment still happens: your 10 shares lose 13.3% of their value.
• Buying just before book closure for the dividend rarely pays: the price usually falls by about the dividend afterwards, and the dividend is taxed.

There is only one share market in Nepal: NEPSE. SEBON's register lists one stock exchange. Apps and sites such as ShareSansar, Merolagani and NepseAlpha show NEPSE's data; brokers are the doors into it. So "which share market is best" really asks two other questions: which broker, and which share.

Which broker? Commission is set by SEBON's regulation, so the rate is the same everywhere. Compare what differs: how well its TMS works for you, how it takes collateral, how quickly it pays after settlement, and whether it has an office you can reach. Check it on SEBON's list of licensed brokers before sending money.

Which share? We name none, and a page or group that names "the best share for beginners" is usually selling something. These neutral checks come first:

• You can explain the business in two sentences: how it earns money and what could stop it.
• Profit in most of the last five years, not one good quarter. Its quarterly reports are on its website and reposted by the data sites.
• The price against the profit. In July 2026 the median P/E was 18.7 for commercial banks and 64 for hydropower (ShareSansar): the market paid very different prices for a rupee of profit. 24 of 110 hydropower companies were making a loss.
• It trades every day, so you can sell when you need to.
• It is not the share everyone is talking about this week.

Two questions hide in this one. Is it safe from theft? Mostly, if you use the system as built. Is it safe from loss? No: share prices fall, sometimes for years, and nobody guarantees them.

• Your shares are in your own name in your demat account at CDSC, not with the broker, and they cannot leave it for a sale without your own transfer instruction (EDIS).
• Money moves through banks. SEBON's broker regulation lets a broker pay clients only through a bank, and CDSC can bar a broker that holds back payment, or make it pay interest.
• Insider trading (भित्री कारोबार), trading on price-sensitive news before it is public, is an offence under the Securities Act.
• Prices can fall a long way. The index lost 43% from August 2021 to September 2022; a single company can lose more, and a company can make losses for years.
• The risks sit outside the system: someone who asks for your MeroShare password, PIN or TMS login; a group that promises a fixed monthly return for "managing" your money; a share pushed in a chat group.

Most losses in the first year come from a handful of habits, not from bad luck. Each has a number behind it.

• Tips and rumour groups. Facebook, Telegram and WhatsApp groups and paid "signals" push shares that someone wants to sell. If a tip were worth money, it would not be sold for a monthly fee.
• Buying after a big run. The index ended July 2021 at 3,079.83. Five years later, at the end of October 2026, it was 12.7% lower, before dividends. Many people opened their first account in that boom.
• Chasing the upper circuit. A share up 15% three days running draws buyers because it is rising, which is not a reason. A share can fall 15% a day too.
• Averaging down without asking why. Buying more of a falling share lowers your average cost only if the company is sound; if it fell for a reason, you have doubled the loss.
• Over-trading. One round trip of Rs 1,00,000 costs Rs 740 in charges. Once a week for a year, that is Rs 38,480, before any tax, on the same Rs 1,00,000.
• Borrowed money. A loan multiplies a fall, worked in the next section.
• Money you will need soon. Money for fees, a wedding or a flight in the next year or two belongs in a deposit, not in shares that may be down when you need them.
• Everything in one company or one sector, so one bad result sinks the whole.
• Missed paperwork: no EDIS after a sale means a closeout; an unchecked WACC can mean more tax.

Since February 2026 brokers may lend to clients under the Margin Trading Directive 2082, and banks lend against shares under Nepal Rastra Bank's rules. Margin trading means buying with part of your own money and the rest borrowed. As ShareSansar reported the directive: you put in at least 30% of the value; if your share of the value falls below 20%, the broker asks for more money (a margin call); at 15% it may sell your shares. Only shares that pass its profit and size tests qualify.

Worked: Rs 30,000 of your own and Rs 70,000 borrowed buys Rs 1,00,000 of shares. A fall of 12.5% brings the margin call; a fall of 17.6% lets the broker sell, and by then 59% of your own money is gone. The same Rs 30,000 with no loan would have lost 17.6%.

Here is the arithmetic. Since April 2026 NEPSE trades on at most 260 weekdays a year (52 weeks × 5), fewer after public holidays. Rs 1,000 on each of them is Rs 2,60,000 a year. The table shows the money you would need for that, from a given yearly return, after the tax and before any trading charges.

• From Rs 1,00,000, Rs 1,000 a day is 1% a day. Kept up and reinvested for 260 days, it would turn Rs 1,00,000 into Rs 13,29,099, 13.3 times as much in a year.
• The index's best twelve months in the decade, May 2020 to May 2021, rose 132%. Only in a year like that would about Rs 2.1 lakh in the whole market have paid Rs 1,000 a day, and the next twelve months it fell 23%. The worst twelve months, October 2021 to October 2022, lost 34%.
• Trading every day does not get round this. Nepal has no intraday trading yet, so a share bought today cannot be sold until it reaches your demat account two working days later, and every round trip pays the charges shown above.
• A course or a group that promises it earns its money from your fee, not from the market.

1. 1Week 1: the base. Check you have three months of spending in the bank. Open a demat account with MeroShare and get your CRN from your bank.
2. 2Week 1 and after: IPOs. Apply for each open IPO for the general public with 10 units, read the company's prospectus first, and do not expect to win.
3. 3Week 2: read. Read this page's sections on prices, T+2 and charges again, then one listed company's latest quarterly report and its last five years' dividends.
4. 4Week 3: the broker. Open a broker account, get your TMS login, and look at the order book and market depth for a few days without buying. Some data sites offer paper trading with pretend money.
5. 5Week 4: one small trade. Buy one board lot of a company you can explain, with money you will not need for three years. Watch it settle on T+2 and confirm the WACC in MeroShare.
6. 6Every month after: write down each trade, its charges and why you made it. Look at your shares once a week, not once an hour, and add money on a schedule rather than after a rise.

Official texts spell share शेयर; newspapers write सेयर. Both are right. Where no Nepali word is in use, people say the English one (LTP, EDIS, T+2).