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The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) gained 56.88 points to close at 2,029.03 points on Thursday. Similarly, the sensitive index plunged by 9.98 points to close at 391. 30 points. A total of 8,024,559 unit shares of 257 companies were traded for Rs 2. 86 billion. Meanwhile, Himalaya Urja Bikas Company Limited, Sanima Life Insurance Limited and Srijhansil Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited were the top gainers today, with their price surging by 10. 00 percent. Nepal Bank Debenture was the top loser as its price fell by 3.95 percent. At the end of the day, total market capitalization stood at Rs 2. 93 trillion.

China plans to reopen borders on January 8 by abandoning quarantine and downgrading other safeguards against Covid-19. This is the country’s last step in shedding three years of zero-Covid and pivoting to living with the virus, The South China Morning Post reports. After almost three years of closed borders, this will reopen the country to those with work and study visas, or seeking to visit family, BBC reports.  But it comes as China struggles with the virus's ferocious spread in the wake of restrictions being lifted. Reports say hospitals are overwhelmed and elderly people are dying. The true toll—daily case counts and deaths—is currently unknown because officials have stopped releasing Covid data. From January 8, travelers to China will only need to present a negative PCR test result from the previous 48 hours at customs to enter the country, the State Council announced on Monday night, according to the report. The State Council said China would officially scrap centralized quarantine and Covid-19 tests on arrival from that date. Travelers will also no longer have to apply to Chinese embassies for a health code before departure. Nepal-China border virtually remains closed after the coronavirus outbreak. This has seriously affected two-way trade and transport. The Nepali side is requesting China to open the border but the northern neighbor is citing its strict zero-Covid policy. Nepal’s Ambassador to China Bishnu Pukar Shrestha said Nepal is requesting Beijing officials to remove the border hassles as soon as possible. After three years of closure, Rasuwagadhi-Kurung, a key crossing point for the bilateral trade between Nepal and China, was reopened from Tuesday. Nepal has started importing Nepali products to China. China will scrap restrictions on international passenger flights, increase the number of flights in stages, and optimize the distribution of routes, according to the statement, according to Xinhua news agency. Airlines will continue to carry out disinfection on board, and passengers are required to wear masks when flying, it said. China will further optimize arrangements for foreigners traveling to China for work, business, study, family visits, and reunions, and provide visa facilitations accordingly. Measures will be taken to ensure that freight at various ports will return to pre-epidemic levels as soon as possible, and outbound tourism for Chinese citizens will be resumed in an orderly manner, said the statement, according to Xinhua.  With the opening of the border, Nepal-China engagement that was restricted for nearly three years is likely to increase. Rasuwa/Kerung port between Nepal and the People’s Republic of China has officially resumed its operation for two-way trade from Tuesday, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Department of Commerce of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China organized an official ceremony in Kerung today to observe the opening of the port. Similarly, Hilsa/Purang port has also been opened for one-way trade from 26 December 2022. The resumption of the ports is expected to augment bilateral trade between Nepal and China, the Ministry said.  

The price of gold has dropped by Rs 200 per tola in the domestic market on Thursday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the yellow bullion is being traded at Rs 100, 900 per tola today. It was traded at Rs 92, 101, 100 per tola on Wednesday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 100, 400 per tola today. Similarly, the price of silver has dropped by Rs 10 and is being traded at Rs 1, 380 per tola.

The agitating business community members have halted their protest programs after the newly appointed Minister for Finance Bishnu Poudel assured them to address their demands by the end of Poush. On Wednesday, Minister Poudel held a discussion with the agitating businesspersons at the ministry where he told them that the government will take necessary steps to resolve the issues in the economy. Bhawani Rana, former president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), who led the delegation of the businesspersons, said that various trade associations across the country have agreed to halt their protests with the finance minister's assurances. "The minister has committed that he will take decisions only after discussing with experts," she said. According to Navin Rizal, President of the Morang Merchant Association, businesspersons of Morang and other districts have stopped their protests for the time being as they believe that the new government will address their demands. Industrialists and businesspersons from Biratnagar, Birgunj, Bhairahawa, Nepalgunj and other cities have been demanding the postponement of guidelines on working capital loans and to bring down the persistently high interest rates. They took to the streets with demands including bringing the bank interest rates to a single digit, postponement of the implementation of the guidelines on working capital by at least two years and revision of tax rates, among others. Against the free market norms? In what is seen as against the norms of the free market, the newly appointed Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel has promised to address the demand of the private sector to reduce borrowing interest rates. Just two days after assuming the office, Paudel, who took charge of the Ministry for the third time, has assured the private sector to reduce interest rates and reschedule and restructure concessional loans provided during the Covid-19 pandemic. While businesspersons have been accused of investing the money they took as refinancing and working capital loans in real estate and the stock market, the finance minister's assurances to the agitating business community to fulfill their demands will not solve the problems in the economy, say observers. One of their key demands is the postponement of the implementation of the guidelines on working capital loans and the other is the bringing down of high borrowing interest rates. According to a banker, interest rates are determined by the market and not by the government. “And in a free market economy like Nepal, it is the central bank that looks at the issue, not the finance ministry. In such a crisis, how the banking sector can sustain a reduction in interest rates? And as the pandemic is already over, why does the private sector want to reschedule loans? They have already invested the loans in the unproductive sector,” said the CEO of a commercial bank on condition of anonymity. He further added that the private sector just wants to extort the government and the central bank.