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The price of gold has increased by Rs 700 per tola in the domestic market on Friday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the precious yellow metal is being traded at Rs 105, 200 per tola today. The gold was traded at Rs 104, 500 per tola on Thursday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 104, 700 per tola. Similarly, the price of silver has increased by Rs 20 and is being traded at Rs 1,375 per tola today.  

The prolonged liquidity crunch that banks and financial institutions (BFIs) grappled with in the last fiscal year has affected their credit flow to the industrial sector. The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) in a new report has said the total loans of BFIs to the industrial sector slumped by 8.5 percent in FY 2021/22. The credit flow was also affected as interest rates surged due to the shortage of loanable funds in the financial system making it difficult for the private sector to borrow from BFIs.  According to the new report released by NRB titled 'Economic Activities Report (Integrated) 2021/22', BFIs disbursed a total of Rs 1251.96 billion in loans to the industrial sector in the last fiscal year which was Rs 1367.75 billion in FY 2020/21. While BFIs’ credit to the industrial sector declined, the extension of loans to the services sector increased by 13.7 percent in the last fiscal year. According to NRB, BFIs disbursed Rs 1857.14 billion in loans to the service sector in FY 2021/22. Of the total loans disbursed by the BFIs in the last fiscal year, 39.6 percent went to the services sector and 26.7 percent to the industrial sector. Of the total industrial loans, 1.2 percent was disbursed to mining industry, 19.6 percent to agriculture, forestry, and beverage industry, 40 percent to non-food product manufacturing industry, 13.9 percent to construction industry, 19.7 percent to electricity, gas, and water industry and 5.6 percent to metal product, machinery, and electronics industry. According to the report, Bagmati Province had the highest loan disbursement of Rs 842.66 billion while Karnali Province had the lowest disbursement of Rs 3.67 billion. The Bagmati Province's share in industrial loans is a whopping 67.3 percent. According to the report, the share of Province 1 is 9.7 percent, Madhesh Province is 8.2 percent, Gandaki Province is 3 percent, Lumbini Province is 9.5 percent, Karnali Province is 0.3 percent and Sudur Paschim Province is 2.1 percent. The report shows, of the total loans disbursed to the services sector, 51.6 percent went to wholesale and retail, followed by 11.8 percent to finance, insurance, and real estate, 10.5 percent to tourism, and 5.5 percent to transport, storage, and communication and 4.2 percent to other services sub-sectors.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) gained 5.71 points to close at 2,178.81 points on Thursday. Similarly, the sensitive index surged by 1.15 points to close at 415. 05 points. A total of 8,247,646 unit shares of 246 companies were traded for Rs 3. 04 billion. Meanwhile, Green Ventures Limited, Adarsha Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited was the top gainer today, with its price surging by 10. 00 percent. Kumari Dhanabriddhi Yojana was the top loser as its price fell by 8.89 percent. At the end of the day, total market capitalization stood at Rs 3. 14 trillion.

With the dry season affecting domestic power production, the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has started importing up to 350 MW of electricity daily from India. The government-owned power utility has said that the current average daily electricity production is between 900-1000 MWs. As production capacity drops to 40 percent during the dry season, NEA has to manage the electricity supply by importing from India. With a fall in temperature, the domestic demand for electricity hit as high as 30,125 MWh on Tuesday. NEA, however, supplied only 29,141 MWh of electricity, including domestically produced power and energy imported from India. Although Nepal has started exporting surplus electricity to India during the wet season, it has to import electricity in the dry season when demand rises while supply slumps. It is because almost all of the power production in the country is based on run-of-the-river hydropower plants. The dry season runs from December to April while the wet season lasts from May to November. According to NEA, the run-of-the-river type hydropower projects usually produce less than 40 percent of their installed capacity during the dry season. The government-owned power utility sold electricity worth Rs 11.16bn to India beginning in June last year until it stopped the exports in the third week of December last year owing to a decline in production during the dry season. India has allowed Nepal to sell 452.6MW of power generated by eight hydropower projects in India’s energy market. During the wet season in 2022, Nepal suffered spillage of power as domestic consumption slumped while there was approval for exporting power from India. According to NEA, over 700MW is expected to be added to the national grid in the current fiscal 2022/23 while over 550MW is expected to be added in the next fiscal year 2023/24. With more electricity that will be generated by various power projects across the country coming to the national grid in the current and next fiscal years, there is an urgent need to initiate the construction of more cross-border transmission lines between Nepal and India. According to Energy Ministry officials, Nepal and India will hold discussions on developing new cross-border transmission lines as the two countries have moved in the direction of creating a common electricity market in South Asia. The topic will be discussed in the upcoming meetings of the joint secretary-level Joint Working Group and secretary-level Joint Steering Committee to be held in India. NEA has proposed to develop a 400KV transmission line connecting Inaruwa of Nepal and Purnia of Bihar, India. Similarly, the 400kV New Lamki (Dodohara)-Bareli Cross Border Transmission Line has also been planned with the NEA preparing a comprehensive design of this project.