Besides being one of the smallest stock exchanges in the world, the Royal Securities Exchange of Bhutan is seeing a decline in the number of people buying and selling shares of the local listed companies.
Not many people bought or sold shares in the capital market, last year. The overall trading of shares in the market dropped by over Nu 40M in 2014 as against 2013.
Total value of shares traded in the secondary market dropped by Nu 40M from Nu 229M in 2014 to Nu 182 M in the previous year.
Royal Securities Exchange’s Chief Executive, Dorji Phuntsho said trading of shares decreased because people do not have a lot of shares with them and they refuse to sell.
There are only 21 listed companies in the country today and the shares floated by these companies are limited.
Dorji Phuntsho also said companies have been too generous in declaring dividends and so people hold on to their shares.
The total value of shares in the market today stands at Nu 22B. This is roughly over 20 percent of Gross Domestic Product. The figure is arrived at by adding the price of shares of all the listed companies.
