Kathmandu College of Management (KCM) has wrapped off the final KuberWiz session for the year 2019/20 on June 7. KuberWiz is a flagship stock investment programme of KCM where students of the 3^rd year Finance & Banking students of the KCM-Siam International BBA programme learn how real-life stock investments are done by investing a small amount of their own money combined with an equal part of loan from college in the Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE).

Issuing a press statement, KCM said that this year’s final session of KuberWiz programme was organised virtually due to the Covid-19 disruption. “Unlike earlier years, this year’s participants saw a roller-coaster ride as Nepse index rallied to surpass 1,600 points in late February while it was just hovering around 1,100 points in early December of 2019,” reads the statement. “The current COVID-19 crisis only added to their panic as NEPSE had been closed indefinitely following the nation-wide lockdown since late March. Nevertheless, students drove through these challenges with perseverance. They are still holding on to a large chunk of their portfolio and are hopeful that the market will bounce back once the lockdown is over and the economy is back and running,” said the college.

According to the statement, the virtual session was accompanied by the guest judges Ajay Shrestha, chairman and managing director at iCapital and Niranjan Phuyal,  deputy manager of NEPSE and board member of CDS and Clearing Limited.

Among the seven groups competing in the KuberWiz programme, Group 7 won the competition. “Their portfolio was highly diversified with their asset-allocation being in commercial banks (50.1 percent), micro-finance (8 percent), life insurance (2.9 percent), manufacturing (26.8 percent), hotels (3.7 percent) and fixed deposits (8.5 percent). They had expected a 25 percent return on their overall portfolio with their investment strategy to choose stocks based on fundamental analysis and trade based on technical analysis. They used the dividend discount model (DDM) to find the intrinsic value of nine companies to check whether the stocks were overvalued or undervalued,” informed KCM, adding, “Overall, their total gain was Rs 43,081and during their conclusion they stated that KuberWiz taught them valuable lessons of controlling emotions, being rational, and having patience during the process of investment.”

Similarly, Group 4, securing the second position, had a high-risk profile, and had a return objective to earn 20 percent on their investments. “Their strategy for asset allocation was to incline more towards equity investments and chose finance (8 percent), hydropower (9 percent), non-life insurance (19 percent), and development banks (43 percent) for their allocation. Their investment objective was to engage in value investing and to focus more on capital gain than dividends. The seven companies they invested in gave them realized gain of Rs 12,792.1 and unrealized loss of Rs 7494,” reads the statement.

Likewise, Group 1, securing the third position, had an expected return of 15 percent on their investments and they allocated their assets in commercial banks, life insurance, non-life insurance, and telecommunication sectors. “To Group 1, diversification was an important factor and they had invested in eight companies that gave them net realized gain of Rs 50,67.76 with their return on investment (ROI) being 2.41 percent,” informed KCM.

According to the statement, the guest judges also shared their insightful observations and some learning from their professional lives. Shrestha mainly stressed the fact that mistakes while investing are bound to happen, and the market, if it goes down, will come back up eventually but what matters the most is the lessons learned from the mistakes and applying the learning to future investments. Phuyal pointed out the importance of following one’s return objectives and sacrificing greed in the investment process. He suggested the students make and follow their pre-set investment objective and focus not only on technical and fundamental analysis but also on a relatively newer approach known as behavioral analysis.

According to KCM, The session concluded with the announcement of winners and vote of thanks addressed by the vice-principal of the college Maria Shrestha. “Group 1 bagged the third place and was awarded books on business and personality development. Group 4 became the runner-up with a cash prize of Rs 20,000 while Group 7 stood out in first place and won the title of “KuberWizards” with a cash prize of Rs 30,000,” the statement said.