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The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 27. 26 points to close at 2,017.46 points on Friday.

Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 5. 40 points to close at 386. 24 points.

A total of 3,320,512 units of the shares of 212 companies were traded for Rs 1. 44 billion.

Meanwhile, Kisan Lagubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited was the top gainer today with its price surging by 8. 41 percent. Likewise, Saptakoshi Development Bank Limited was the top loser with its price dropped by 5. 79 percent.

At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 2. 88 trillion.

Senior politician Dinesh Gunawardena on Friday took over as Sri Lanka's prime minister as President Ranil Wickremesinghe swore in his new Cabinet, Business standard reported.

A stalwart of Sri Lankan politics, Gunawardena, 73, earlier served as the foreign minister and education minister. He was appointed as Home Minister in April by then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

The prime minister's post fell vacant after Wickremesinghe, 73, was on Thursday sworn in as the country's eighth president after Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country and then resigned as president, according to Business Standard.

He has called for bipartisanship to address the unprecedented economic crisis the country is facing.

Good Karma Group of Companies launched Karma Residences, luxury apartment buildings, at an event in Kathmandu on July 18. Karma Tenzing, chairman of the company, shared his experience on how he envisioned the business for the refined tastes of the well-traveled and well-educated Nepali clients. Karma Residences will be a 162-luxury apartment in Maharajgunj, comparable with the finest condominiums in New York City. The architecture and design of the buildings will be handled by UNA in Mumbai. The interior works have been commissioned to A-One Construction. 

The price of gold has increased by Rs 1, 000 per tola in the domestic market on Friday.

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association, the yellow bullion is being traded at Rs 94, 000 per tola today.

Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 93, 500 per tola.

The yellow metal was traded at Rs 93, 000 per tola on Thursday.

Similarly, the price of silver is being traded at Rs 1,155 per tola today.

Police on Thursday confiscated a huge amount of betel nuts meant to be smuggled to India.

The betel nuts worth over Rs 80 million were confiscated from Budhanagar in Biratnagar Metropolitan City-18, police said.

Chief District Officer of Morang Kashi Raj Dahal said that police seized 219, 596 betel nuts packed in 2,678 sacks from eight trucks bearing Indian registration number plates.

The market price of the seized betel nuts is Rs 86. 30 million.

Police said that they have taken the trucks (UP 45 T 1624, MP 09 HG 8320, MP 22 H 1031, UP 50 BT 7277, UP 62 T 8121, UP 54 T 6429, UP 50 AT 3158 and UP 62 CT 0627) under control for investigation.

According to a police source, betel nuts imported from third countries are found being smuggled to India through Nepal.

India has banned the import of betel nuts from the countries except Nepal.

The source, however, said that the people smuggle the betel nuts from Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia among other countries to India taking the advantage of open border.

Police said that the confiscated betel nuts may belong to a businessman of Jhapa.

Betel nuts with a huge amount are not produced in Nepal.

A person died and 17 others were injured when a bus and a microbus collided with each other in Ichhakamana of Chitwan district on Thursday.

The bus (Na 6 Kha 1340) heading towards Bajhang from Kathmandu collided head-on with the microbus (Lu 2 Kha 3502) en route of Kathmandu from Bhairahawa at Chumlingtar in Ichhakamana-3 of Chitwan at around 5 pm yesterday.

A person, who was critically injured in the incident, breathed his last during the course of treatment while the injured are also receiving the treatment.

Further investigation into the incident is underway.

Two persons died when a container bearing an Indian registration number plate hit a motorbike they were riding on at Ganga Chowk in Budhiganga Rural Municipality-2 of Morang district on Friday.

The container (HR 38 X 2210) hit the motorbike (Ko 30 Pa 9103) heading towards Itahari from Biratnagar at 6: 45 am today.

According to Inspector Raj Kumar Karki, Chief at the Morang Traffic Police Office, the deceased have been identified as bike rider Harka Pariyar (27) and pillion rider Bhim Bahadur Rai (21) of Kerabari Rural Municipality-7 of Morang.

Police said that they have impounded the container and arrested its driver for investigation.

Karki said that the container hit the motorbike from behind when it tried to overtake in the narrow road.

Following the incident, locals obstructed the Koshi Highway demanding stern action against the container driver.

Police said that they are looking into the case.

Turkey says a deal has been reached with Russia to allow Ukraine to resume exports of grain through the Black Sea, BBC reported.

It is to be signed on Friday in Istanbul by Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. 

The world shortage of Ukrainian grain since Russia's 24 February invasion has left millions at risk of hunger.

The invasion sent food prices soaring, so the deal to unblock Ukraine's ports is crucial. Some 20 million tonnes of grain is stuck in silos in Odesa.

Ukraine's foreign ministry confirmed that another UN-led round of talks to unblock grain exports would take place in Turkey on Friday - and a document "may be signed".

But one Ukrainian MP close to the talks voiced caution over the deal.

"We don't have [an] agreement yet," Odesa MP Oleksiy Honcharenko told BBC Radio 4's World Tonight programme. "We don't trust Russians at all. So let us wait till tomorrow for a final decision and that there will not be some pushbacks from Russians and last minute changes."

"I keep fingers crossed tomorrow we'll have a deal and Russia will really respect it."

The US State Department welcomed the UN-brokered deal, but said it was focusing on holding Russia accountable for implementing it.

"We should never have been in this position in the first place. This was a deliberate decision on the part of the Russian Federation to weaponise food," said the department's spokesman Ned Price, according to BBC.

Diplomats say the plan includes:

• Ukrainian vessels guiding grain ships in and out through mined port waters
• Russia agreeing to a truce while shipments move
• Turkey - supported by the United Nations - inspecting ships, to allay Russian fears of weapons smuggling. 

The deal is also meant to facilitate Russian exports of grain and fertiliser via the Black Sea.

The UN and Turkey have been working for two months to broker a grain deal, amid global anxiety about the food crisis.

Russia denies blockading Ukraine's ports - it blames Ukraine for laying mines at sea and Western sanctions for slowing Russia's own exports.

Ukraine however says the Russian navy prevents it shipping grain and other exports and accuses Russian occupation forces of stealing grain from Ukrainian farms.

If the signing goes ahead as planned it will be the first significant deal between Russia and Ukraine since the invasion began. There have been some prisoner exchanges, but a ceasefire still appears a long way off.

"The grain export agreement, critically important for global food security, will be signed in Istanbul under the auspices of President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan and UN Secretary General Mr Guterres together with Ukrainian and Russian delegations," said Mr Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin.

Sergiy Kyslytsya, the Ukrainian ambassador to the UN, said the devil would be in the detail of the deal, which was still being worked on by all parties, BBC reported.

If the deal was signed and implemented, it would "ensure a significant number of ships can approach or leave the Ukrainian ports and we can export about 20 million tonnes of grain, which is ready to be exported," he told BBC World News.

He added that Turkey would play a "very important part ensuring the security" and monitoring the process.