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The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 30. 77 points to close at 1,938.25 points on Sunday. Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 4. 86 points to close at 368. 70 points. A total of 3,832,459 unit shares of 259 companies were traded for Rs 1. 39 billion. Meanwhile, Super Madi Hydropower Limited was the top gainer today with its price surging by 10. 00 percent. Likewise, Samling Power Company Limited was the top loser with its price dropped by 10. 00 percent. At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 2. 80 trillion.

The price of gold has increased by Rs 300 per tola in the domestic market on Sunday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the precious yellow metal is being traded at Rs 102, 800 per tola today. The gold was traded at Rs 102, 300 per tola on Friday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 102, 300 per tola. It was traded at Rs 102, 000 per tola. Similarly, the price of silver has increased by Rs 10 and is being traded at Rs 1,275 per tola today.

The Asia Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering has pointed out several deficiencies of Nepal to comply with the standards on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT). This may lead to the 'graylisting' of Nepal by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global anti-money laundering watchdog, a senior government official said. After concluding the field visit to Nepal in December last year as part of the mutual evaluation of Nepal’s compliance in December, the APG has prepared a report and shared it with Nepal. According to the government official who has seen the report, there are two types of non-compliances that the report has pointed out—legislation-related and implementation and supervision-related. The APG report has indicated the biggest weakness of Nepal in the enforcement of the laws. “The report has shown deficiencies in taking legal action against big fishes of corruption and other illegal activities,” the official said, adding, “It has also shown weakness in taking action against reporting entities, which are failing to comply with anti-money laundering measures.” APG presented its initial report to Nepal this month to seek the government's opinion on its assessment of Nepal’s degree of compliance with anti-money laundering standards. “It may take a week or so to send the reply,” the official said. In fact, most of the deficiencies related to the legislation pointed out by the APG are the same that the government itself had admitted. In order to plug the loopholes in the laws, an amendment bill covering various laws was registered in the previous parliament. Even though the erstwhile House of Representatives had endorsed the bill, it failed to send the law to the National Assembly which resulted in vacating the entire process. The government of Nepal has identified 15 laws that need to be amended to make them compatible with the FATF anti-money laundering standards. Some of the major laws that need amendment are the Assets Laundering Prevention Act 2008, Securities Act 2007, Human Trafficking, and Transportation (Control) Act 2008, Confiscation of Criminal Proceeds Act 2014, Land Revenue Act 1978, Tourism Act 1978, Mutual Legal Assistance Act 2014, Organized Crimes Prevention Act 2014, Criminal (Code) Act 2017 and Cooperative Act 2017. The previous government under Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had even forwarded an ordinance covering amendment proposals on these laws to President Bidya Devi Bhandari, but the latter didn’t authenticate it. The government formed after the November 20, 2022 parliamentary elections has again registered the Some Nepal Acts Amendment Bill to address these deficiencies. “If the new bill is passed, around 80 percent of deficiencies pointed out by the APG with regard to the legislation will be addressed,” said the official. “It will still not address the concerns related to real estate and extraditions.” According to the official, there should be a political consensus on addressing extradition-related issues. A face-to-face interaction is expected in April before the APG prepares its final report. The report will then go to the APG plenary, which will determine whether Nepal will be under the International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG) monitoring of the FATF. “There is still hope for Nepal if the parliament passes the registered bill,” said the official. “There will be room for improvement in the enforcement of laws as well to prevent graylisting.” According to the International Monetary Fund, the consequences of ‘graylist’ is a possible future blacklisting and loss of correspondent banking with many of the world’s major banks. Correspondent banking refers to agreements between banks to provide payment services for each other. After being on the ‘graylist’ in 2008, Nepal was close to being placed on the blacklist in 2012. This forced the country to introduce new laws, regulations, procedures, and a dedicated investigation unit, which helped Nepal to be delisted from the FATF ‘graylist’ in 2014.

The capacity utilization of industrial enterprises in Nepal stood at 61.53 percent in the first quarter of the current fiscal year 2022/23. According to the Industry Status Report published by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), capacity utilization of the service industry declined in the first quarter while that of the manufacturing industry increased. As per the CNI report, the service industry's capacity utilization stood at 78.9 percent in the first quarter of this fiscal year compared to 81.66 percent in the final quarter of the last fiscal year 2021/22. The manufacturing industry fared marginally better in the review period with capacity utilization of 53.63 percent compared to 47.54 percent in the last quarter of FY 2021/22. The acute shortage of liquidity in the financial system, rising interest rates, and the slowdown in demand have hit the revenue of the industries, according to CNI. The across-industry-average revenue growth was negative by 10.63 percent in the first quarter of this fiscal. The average revenue growth in the last quarter of the last fiscal was 10.97 percent. "The revenue generation has shrunk sharply in the first quarter of FY 2022/23," states the report. The CNI report shows that 45.06 percent of working capital was met through credit from banks and financial institutions in the first quarter of FY 2022/23. "With the implementation of the Working Capital Loan Guideline, 2079, the drawing power of enterprises for working capital has been limited. This can bring unforeseen challenges to operate businesses, particularly for manufacturing companies," says the report. As per the report the average interest rate on bank loans stood at 12.75 percent in the review period. The report says the average interest rate on loans increased by one percentage point in the first quarter of the current fiscal year compared to the last quarter of the last fiscal year. According to CNI, the average share of imported raw materials by the manufacturing industry in the review period stood at 51.98%. Similarly, CNI has highlighted that getting a reliable power supply is still a major issue for industries in the country. According to the report, 56.25 percent of the industries still use generators as the electricity supply is not reliable. Industrialists say that the electricity provided by Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is from a common feeder for an area which reduces the reliability so a separate feeder is essential for commercial purposes. Those manufacturing industries using generators as alternative sources of energy stated that an additional 18.43 percent cost has increased due to the use of generators. According to CNI, the report was prepared based on a survey of 45 industries belonging to manufacturing, financial, trade, communication, IT and agriculture.