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The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 60. 77 points to close at 2,121.86 points on Sunday. Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 10. 99 points to close at 404. 43 points. A total of 8,139,840 unit shares of 253 companies were traded for Rs 3. 04 billion. Meanwhile, Khaptad Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited was the top gainer today with its price surging by 59. 00 percent. Likewise, Ngadi Group Power Limited was the top loser with its price dropped by 20. 90 percent. At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 3. 06 trillion.

Jang Sung-min, political advisor of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, is arriving in Nepal on Sunday. He is the senior Secretary at the President’s office. Jang has been helping the South Korean President to formulate policies. According to a source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jang along with his team will arrive in Kathmandu this afternoon. During this stay in Nepal, he will pay courtesy calls on Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Foreign Minister Bimala Rai Paudyal and Industry Minister Damodar Bhandari among others. An official at the Foreign Ministry said that the team led by Jang will leave for Bangladesh on Tuesday.

Leaders have agreed to move ahead by further strengthening the ruling alliance. During a meeting of the high-level political mechanism held in Baluwatar on Sunday, leaders have agreed to further strengthen the ruling alliance, Deputy Prime Minister and Rastriya Prajatantra Party Chairman Rajendra Lingden said. “The government’s performance was reviewed in the meeting today. It has been agreed to move forward by cooperating with each other and to give continuity to the meeting,” he said. He was of the opinion that the government will move ahead as per the past agreement. Lingden further said that a discussion was also held to bring the Rastriya Swatantra Party in the government.    

The government and the agitating doctors signed a six-point agreement on Sunday. Following the agreement, the Nepal Medical Association has withdrawn its protest programs. The doctors decided to withdraw the protest programs after the government pledged them to arrange treatment for the injured doctor Jenith Lal Singh during the talks held in Singha Durbar this morning. Similarly, it has been agreed to effectively implement the provisions related to safety of health workers and health institutions in accordance with Act 2066. The doctors had staged a demonstration after senior police Constable Sambhu Gurung baton-charged Dr Singh, a senior orthopaedic surgeon of the National Trauma Center, during President Bidya Devi Bhandari’s convey. Nepal Police has already suspended Constable Gurung accused of assaulting Dr Singh.

Rescuers continued to pull some survivors out of the rubble on Saturday, five days after the tremors of the first earthquake struck Syria and Turkey, but hopes were fading for many more to be found, Aljazeera Reported. Monday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake is Turkey’s most devastating since 1939 and the death toll continues to rise. The death toll exceeded 24,600 in Turkey and more than 3,500 others were confirmed dead in Syria, as the overall toll surpassed 28,000. Reporting from Antakya, Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith said that despite the overwhelming level of destruction in the capital of Turkey’s Hatay province, there was still a glimmer of hope. “We are in the 135th hour now since the quakes, but there is still some hope. In the 132nd hour, a toddler was rescued, and a couple of hours before that, a man and woman were rescued alive. The search for survivors has not stopped,” said Smith. He added the government plans to reopen the airport in the city within 24 hours, according to Aljazeera. “The airport runway was badly damaged. They said they are about to re-tarmac. This will be essential for relief flights. The need is so desperate for aid,” said Smith. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, facing questions over earthquake planning and response time, has said authorities should have reacted faster.

Property worth around Rs 6 million was reduced to ashes when a fire completely destroyed five shops at the City Market in Jitpur of Jitpur Simara Sub-Metropolitan City-7 on Sunday. The fire had started from the shop of local trader Anil Sah due to electric short circuit at around 6 am today. The blaze was taken under control with the help of Nepal Police and Armed Police force personnel and locals backed by fire engines after around three hours. Police said that they are looking into the case.

Cold, hunger and despair gripped hundreds of thousands of people left homeless after the earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria three days ago as the death toll passed 20,000 on Thursday, Reutres reported.

The rescue of a 2-year-old boy after 79 hours trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building in Hatay, Turkey, and several other people raised spirits among weary search crews. But hopes were fading that many more would be found alive in the ruins of towns and cities.

The death toll across both countries has now surpassed the more than 17,000 killed in 1999 when a similarly powerful earthquake hit northwest Turkey.

A Turkish official said the disaster posed “very serious difficulties” for the holding of an election scheduled for May 14 in which President Tayyip Erdogan has been expected to face his toughest challenge in two decades in power.

With anger simmering over delays in the delivery of aid and getting the rescue effort underway, the disaster is likely to play into the vote if it goes ahead.

The first U.N. convoy carrying aid to stricken Syrians crossed over the border from Turkey.

In Syria’s Idlib province, Munira Mohammad, a mother of four who fled Aleppo after the quake, said: “It is all children here, and we need heating and supplies. Last night we couldn’t sleep because it was so cold. It is very bad.”

Hundreds of thousands of people in both countries have been left homeless in the middle of winter. Many have camped out in makeshift shelters in supermarket car parks, mosques, roadsides or amid the ruins, often desperate for food, water and heat, according to Reuters.

Some 40% of buildings in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras, epicentre of the tremor, are damaged, according to a preliminary report by Turkey’s Bogazici University.

As the liquidity situation improved in the banking system with the surge in deposit collection and low demand for loans, the credit expansion of banks and financial institutions to the private sector jumped in the six months (mid-December to mid-January) of the current fiscal year. BFIs disbursed Rs 73 billion in loans in the first five months. The disbursement spiked in the sixth month (Poush) reaching Rs 64 billion. Banks disbursed only Rs 4.7 billion in the fifth month (Mangsir). Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) data shows private sector lending of banks grew by Rs 137.33 billion in the first six months of FY 2022/23. “This suggests an improvement in the liquidity situation of the banking sector,” said a senior official of the NRB. “Interbank lending rate has also decreased to around four percent which is another indication of easing liquidity.” However, the credit expansion to the private sector during the first half of the current fiscal year is far less than what the BFIs lent during the same period last fiscal year. BFIs' lending to the private sector had grown by Rs 492.63 billion in the first six months of the previous fiscal. Along with the lending, deposit collection also surged in the Poush. Of the Rs 215.14 billion deposit growth in the first half of the current fiscal year, Rs 104 billion was recorded in Poush which also helped BFIs increase lending. Bankers, however, are not sure whether the rise in lending will continue in the coming months. “We are in a comfortable position in terms of investment-grade liquidity now and we are capable of lending to a certain extent. But we have not seen large-scale demand for credit in the last two weeks which gives to the suspicion that the loan demand seen in Poush may have fizzled out," the banker said. Businesspersons have been complaining about the weak market demand for goods and services in recent months which has forced them to reduce production. With industries running at low production capacity, the power demand from the industrial sector has also been decreasing, according to Nepal Electricity Authority. "If the government speeds up construction activities, demand for credit from the construction material industry may rise,” said the banker. However, the government is planning to cut the financing for construction projects in the wake of the resource crunch. The high-interest rates could also contribute to lower demand for loans, according to bankers. The private sector has been demanding that interest rates need to be lowered as the average interest rate of loans was 12.79 percent in January, which is the highest in the last two and half years. But BFIs are unlikely to reduce lending rates significantly because of the high cost of funds. The high cost of funds is because the majority of their source of funds is reliant on fixed deposits for which they have to pay higher interest. As of mid-January 2023, the share of fixed deposits in total deposits of banks and financial institutions stood at 60.4 percent. When it comes to categories of banks and financial institutions, finance companies have been heavily reliant on fixed deposits.  Finance companies and development banks are more reliant on fixed deposits. The share of fixed deposits in finance companies stood at 72.96 percent while the share in development banks stood at 69.33 percent and 58.22 percent in the case of commercial banks, during the first five months of this fiscal, according to NRB. “Liquidity in the financial system remains vulnerable as long as they reduce the composition of fixed deposits to around 40 percent,” another banker said. “It is because if a large institutional depositor withdraws money, investment-grade liquidity will decrease significantly.”