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The Indian rupee ended at a record closing low against the dollar on Monday as continued foreign portfolio outflows from domestic stockmarkets and a broadly stronger greenback weighed on the currency despite intermittent dollar selling intervention, Reuters reported.

The partially convertible rupee closed trading at 79.4375/4475 per dollar in the local session at 1000 GMT, compared to its close of 79.25 on Friday. The unit touched a lifetime low of 79.44 during the session, surpassing its previous low of 79.3750 touched last week.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced an array of measures last Wednesday to bring in dollars, including allowing overseas investors to buy short-term corporate debt and opening up more government securities under the fully accessible route.

"These measures would ease some pressure on the rupee in the near term. However, a widening trade deficit and continued FPI outflows will continue to weigh on the INR," said Sachchidanand Shukla, chief economist at Mahindra Group.

Indian shares fell as IT services major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS.NS) dragged down technology companies after posting weak results last week.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPI) have sold shares worth nearly $30 billion so far in 2022 with traders fearing more outflows if a global recession were to kick in, according to Reuters.

The dollar was on the front foot at the start of a week in which US and Chinese data and European energy security were top of mind, as investor concerns about global economic growth offered support to the safe haven currency.

Traders said the RBI was spotted selling dollars via state-run banks sporadically to brake the decline in the rupee but the direction of the currency is unlikely to be altered any time soon.

The rupee is likely to be still trading near its historic low in three months' time, battered by widening trade and current account deficits, according to a Reuters poll where nearly one in three analysts expected it to weaken to 80 per dollar by September, Reuters reported.

Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City Balen Shah has been invited for a friendly visit by the Matihani Municipality of Mahottari district, which is also the home district of Shah.

Hari Prasad Mandal, mayor of Matihani met Shah and extended his invitation. Shah also expressed his desire to visit Mahottari. The meeting was arranged by Ashutosh Karn where both of the mayors discussed future coordination between two cultural cities.

Mandal presented a photo of Laxminarayan Temple of Mahottari to mayor Shah while Kathmandu's side gave a statue of Lord Ganesh as a token of love.

Novak Djokovic underlined his recent dominance at Wimbledon with a composed and controlled fightback against Australia's Nick Kyrgios to win a fourth consecutive men's singles title, BBC reported.

Serbia's Djokovic, 35, lost the first set after some superb serving from Kyrgios, but ended up winning 4-6 6-3 6-4 7-6 (7-3) on Centre Court. 

It is Djokovic's seventh SW19 men's title and only Roger Federer has more.

Victory also moved him one behind Rafael Nadal's record 22 men's majors.

Top seed Djokovic made a slower start than his 27-year-old opponent, who initially seemed nerveless in his first Grand Slam singles final.

But the Serb did not lose belief as he showed all of his experience and nous to turn the match around.

"He's a bit of a god, I'm not going to lie. I thought I played well," Kyrgios said as he congratulated Djokovic, according to BBC.

Losing his winning position began to irritate Kyrgios, who is known for his fiery temperament as well as his exciting tennis.

While Kyrgios increasingly remonstrated with his support team, Djokovic remained cool in the heat of the battle on a scorching Centre Court. 

After clinching victory with his third match point, Djokovic dropped to his haunches and picked a blade of the Centre Court grass to eat in what has now become a customary celebration.

It was a first major win of the year for the Serb, who was stopped from playing in the Australian Open after being deported because of his vaccination status, and lost to Rafael Nadal in the French Open quarter-finals, BBC reported.

Nepali Congress province presidents urged party leaders to set criteria for an alliance in the forthcoming elections.

During the Central Executive Committee meeting that started at the party office in Sanepa from today, they suggested leaders to forge a necessary alliance, giving continuity to the coalition in the elections.

Some were of the opinion that it would be appropriate for the Nepali Congress to contest the elections alone.

The Local Level Election Central Mobilization Committee presented a report of local level elections in the meeting.

During the meeting, leader Shekhar Koirala urged the party president to hold a policy convention at the earliest, saying that the 14th general convention only selected the leadership but could not work on formulating the policies.

Central members Koirala, Pradeep Paudel, Dev Raj Kandel, Dila Sangraula, Krishna Kishor Ghimire, Narayan Bahadur Karki, Taraman Gurung, Dinesh Kumar Yadav, Nain Singh Mahar, Guru Baral and Dinesh Koirala among others floated their opinion in the meeting.

Visiting Chinese Communist Party International Liaison Department head Liu Jianchao held a meeting with CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal at the latter’s residence in Khumaltar on Monday.

He arrived in Kathmandu at a time when Beijing had been expressing concern over the growing anti-China activities in Nepal in recent times.

China sent Liu as an envoy to unite all the Communist parties.

He paid courtesy calls on Prime Minister Sher Bahadur and Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka on Sunday.

Similarly, the Chinese leader also extended an invitation to Prime Minister Deuba to visit China.

Leading an eight-member delegation, Liu arrived in Kathmandu on a four-day visit to Nepal on Sunday.

Nepal reported 168 new Covid-19 cases on Monday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 1, 834 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 129 returned positive. Likewise, 1, 168 people underwent antigen tests, of which 39 were tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of the virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 37 infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 770 active cases in the country.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 77. 01 points to close at 1,915.61 points on Monday.

Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 13. 03 points to close at 366. 86 points.

A total of 6,313,641 units of the shares of 227 companies were traded for Rs 2. 32 billion.

Meanwhile, Sanima Debenture was the top gainer today with its price surging by 2. 00 percent. Likewise, Grameen Bikas Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited was the top loser with its price dropped by 10. 00 percent.

At the end of the day, the total market capitalisation stood at Rs 2. 73 trillion.

Multiple Chinese cities are adopting fresh COVID-19 curbs, from business halts to lockdowns, to rein in new infections, with the commercial hub of Shanghai bracing for another mass testing campaign after detecting the BA.5 Omicron subvariant, Reuters reported.

As China sticks to its "dynamic zero-COVID" policy of promptly stamping out all outbreaks, the strict curbs by local governments come despite low caseloads, at a time when much of the world co-exists with the virus.

The central government has said curbs must be as targeted as possible to reduce damage to the world's No. 2 economy, after this year's major disruptions clogged global supply chains and hit international trade. 

The highly-transmissible BA.5, which is driving outbreaks in many countries outside China, has shown signs of greater ability to escape vaccine-triggered antibody reactions than some other Omicron subvariants, health officials have said.

The discovery of one such infection in Shanghai could add pressure to quickly limit a nascent outbreak and avert more disruptive measures similar to the lockdown in April and May that roiled the global economy and markets.

Shanghai, China's most populous city of 25 million, has told people in several districts to get tested twice in another round of mass screening from Tuesday to Thursday, similar to last week's.

Its residents are already testing every few days to secure access to various locations and public transport.

Daily counts of locally transmitted infections in Shanghai increased to several dozens since July 5, up from single digits earlier this month, but are still tiny by global standards, according to Reuters.

Most of its recent cases have been among those already in quarantine. 

NEW CURBS ELSEWHERE

Mainland China reported 352 new domestically transmitted COVID infections on July 10, 46 of these symptomatic and 306 asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Monday.

In the central province of Henan, the town of Qinyang has almost completely locked down its nearly 700,000 residents from Sunday, with one person from each household allowed out every two days to get groceries.

In some areas, people have been told not to leave home at all. 

Four major districts in the northwestern city of Lanzhou, in Gansu province, and the southern cities of Danzhou and Haikou in Hainan province, are under temporary curbs for several days, with entertainment and cultural spaces shut. 

About 6 million people in the three cities are affected by the rules. 

The city of Nanchang in southern Jiangxi province, with 6.3 million residents, shut some entertainment venues on Saturday, although the duration of the curbs was not specified.

In the northwestern province of Qinghai, the city of Xining kicked off a mass testing campaign on Monday after one person tested positive on Sunday, Reuters reported.

Several major districts in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou also began mass tests on Monday.