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The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) gained 35.66 points to close at 2,464.31 points on Thursday.

Similarly, the sensitive index plunged by 8.13 points to close at 463. 73 points.

Meanwhile, a total of 5,444,738 unit shares of 224 companies were traded for Rs 2. 12 billion.

In today’s market, all sub-indices saw green. Life Insurance topped the chart with 258. 56 points.

Meanwhile, Himalayan Power Partner Limited was the top gainer today, with its price surging by 10. 00 percent. Rastra Utthan Laghubitta  Sanstha Limited was the top loser as its price fell by 7.71 percent.

The CPN-UML has expressed its dissatisfaction on six issues of the local level election code of conduct issued by the Election Commission.

The main opposition party, however, has expressed its commitment to abide by the other rules that do not contradict with the Constitution.

A team including UML General Secretary Shankar Pokharel and Deputy General Secretary Bishnu Rimal reached the Election Commission this afternoon and drew the attention of Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Thapaliya towards the election code.

The UML has expressed its dissatisfaction over the election code of conduct's requirement for incumbent local representatives to resign from their post before filing nomination papers and the provision to ban campaigning through social media among others.

The Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA) has directed the service providers to tighten the sales and distribution of SIM and RIM cards. 

The instruction by the telecommunication regulatory body comes in the wake of rife complaints received by it regarding the indiscriminate distribution of SIM and RIM cards by the service providers.

Issuing a notice here today, the NTA instructed the service providers to distribute the SIM and RIM cards after letting the service-seekers fill the KYC form properly, after following proper procedures as well as verifying the details. 

The NTA has also directed the service providers to comply with the rules and regulations of the NTA while selling and distributing SIM and RIM cards. 

Similarly, the service-seekers are also urged to purchase SIM and RIM Cards on the basis of their actual details. Those violating the rules and regulations shall be punished as per the prevailing law, the NTA warned. RSS

Nepali Congress (NC) leader Dilendra Prasad Badu has been appointed as the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari appointed Badu as the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies on the recommendation of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.

According to the President's office, Badu was appointed the minister as per Article 78 (1) of the Constitution.

Advocate Govinda Bandi has been appointed as the Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari appointed Bandi as the Law Minister on the recommendation of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.

According to the President's office, preparations are being made to administer the oath of office and secrecy today itself.

Prime Minister Deuba appointed non-MP Bandi as the minister.

A hat-trick by veteran striker Karim Benzema, including two fine headed goals in the space of three first-half minutes, earned Real Madrid a 3-1 win at reigning European champions Chelsea in their Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

Benzema, 34, claimed his hat-trick when he pounced on an error by Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy just after halftime to put the Spaniards in control of the tie before Tuesday’s second leg in Madrid.

Kai Havertz had restored some hope to the Blues when he headed in an angled pass from Jorginho in the 40th minute to make it 2-1.

But Chelsea’s chances of a comeback were undone by Mendy’s mistake in the 46th minute when, outside his box, he tried to pass to Antonio Rudiger only for Benzema to intercept and steer the ball into an empty net for his 37th goal of the season.

The France striker rocked Chelsea when he converted pinpoint crosses with headers, first from Vinicius Jr from the left in the 21st minute and then from Luka Modric on the right in the 24th, leaving Mendy with no chance on either occasion.

Benzema had looked certain to claim his hat-trick just before halftime but he fired wide with Chelsea’s usually rock-solid defence looking ragged.

“They’re very important goals. I’m happiest to have scored the third as I missed one in the first half and I was thinking about that chance because it’s very important to score goals. Then I got another and I’m very happy,” Benzema told Spanish television, according to Reuters.

“Today we came out to win, to show we’re Real Madrid. Things worked out well for us as we played well, from the first minute to the last.”

The Spaniards were seeking revenge after the Londoners eliminated them in last season’s semi-finals before the Blues won the trophy in Porto.

There was an early warning sign for the Londoners when Vinicius Jr cracked a shot against the bar in the 10th minute.

Chelsea sought to fight back in the second half with the best chance falling to substitute Romelu Lukaku – Chelsea’s record signing who has struggled to fit in at Stamford Bridge – but he headed narrowly wide as a deflected ball dropped to him on the edge of the six-yard box in the 69th minute.

In the dying moments, Hakim Ziyech, also on as a sub, fired over from 13 yards.

Real – who have been crowned European champions 13 times but had never previously beaten Chelsea – are now in pole position to advance into the semi-finals to face either Manchester City or crosstown rivals Atletico Madrid.

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti, who spent two years as Chelsea head coach and led the Blues to the Premier League and FA Cup double in the 2009/10 season, hailed his team’s control of the game and the danger they posed on the counterattack, Reuters reported.

“It was a good night but it is only the first half of this round,” he was quoted as saying by the BBC.

Chelsea’s defeat adds to a sense of turmoil with the club put up for sale by Roman Abramovich after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation.”

The Russian billionaire has been sanctioned by the British government.

Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel said his team had been way off the levels he expects.

“You cannot expect a result from this kind of performance,” he told reporters.

The District Police Office, Udayapur has made public two persons arrested for murdering Kabita Sunuwar (15) of Belka Municipality-3, Buddhachowk on Wednesday.

Kavita’s dead body was found near a local Jasoda rivulet on Tuesday morning. 

Police made public Sarita Dhakal Khatry (17) of Belka-3 and her elder uncle’s son Binod Dhakal (19), a resident of Sikkim Paiyu of India and are currently living in Belka, as the murderers of the adolescent girl. 

Kabita, a 10th grader of Koshi Janata Secondary School, was murdered while she was on the way to school for SEE tuition classes. Her dead body was found almost two kilometres away from the home. 

In course of an immediate investigation into the murder incident, police had arrested Sarita and Binod, informed District Police Office chief Subas Bohora. 

According to the police, both Kabita and Sarita were 10th graders in the same Koshi School. They had some personal disputes and to take revenge Sairita had used his brother to plot the murder of Kavita, police said. 

According to the investigation’s preliminary findings, Sarita had sent a mobile text to Kavita on Tuesday morning for early tuition classes. “Sarita also took his brother Binod to the forest which is their route to go to school. When Sarita and Kabita met on the way, Binod had attacked Kabita on her head from the back with a beer bottle. She had fallen unconscious after the assault and then after Sarita and Binod beat her with stones to death”, the police investigation revealed. 

Police have made necessary preparation to file a murder case against Binod and Sarita, police said. RSS

India's first case of the XE variant of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) was reported from Mumbai on Wednesday, Hindustan Times reported.

Results of the 11th genome sequencing declared by the city civic body Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC,)  found one sample positive for XE variant and another for Kappa variant.

The individual who tested positive for the XE variant was a fully vaccinated 50-year-old women with no comorbidity and asymptomatic, BMC officials said. She had come from South Africa on February 10 and had no prior travel history. On arrival, she had tested negative for the virus.

The woman, a costume designer, had been inoculated against the virus with two doses the Comirnaty vaccine.

On March 2, in a routine test at Suburban diagnostics, she was found infected and was quarantined in a room in Taj Lands End. Officials said another test was done on the next day by Spice Health, where she tested negative, according to Hindustan Times.

The BMC had tested 230 samples which 99.13 per cent or 228 samples tested positive for the Omicron strain that had driven the spread of the virus earlier this year across the country. 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) had earlier said the new subvariant – ‘XE’ – a hybrid strain of two Omicron sub variants, could be the most transmissible coronavirus strain so far. 

According to the global health body, early studies indicated the variant had a growth rate advantage of 10 per cent as compared to BA.2, one of the very contagious variants.

A study in UK, which is facing a fresh wave of infections, suggested that while there were signs of “community transmission” of XE in England, it remained less than one per cent of the totally sequenced coronavirus cases.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) was studying XE — a mutation of the BA.1 and BA.2 Omicron strains — and as of March 22, 637 XE cases had been detected in England, according to official figures, Hindustan Times reported.

Professor Susan Hopkins, the UKHSA's chief medical advisor, said such variants were known as “recombinant” and usually died off "relatively quickly".