KATHMANDU: Gold and silver prices remained unchanged throughout the trading week, from July 26 to 31. Bullion price remained stable this week after a regular fall of five consecutive weeks. Gold was traded at Rs 48,000 per tola and silver at Rs 665 per tola in the six trading days from Sunday to Friday.

NBI conference

KATHMANDU: National Banking Institute (NBI) is organising a ‘National Conference on Assets Liability Management’ on Thursday, August 6, for financial institutions in Nepal focusing on international trends and best practices in market risk, non-market risks that are critical to the effectiveness of market risk management, and regulatory trends and directions, as per a press statement issued on Saturday. The programme is useful for BFIs, insurance companies, investment banks, MFIs, and pension funds amongst others. Rajinder Kumar, chief general manager at the Department of Banking Regulation, Reserve Bank of India, Ripujit Chaudhari, head of Market Risk, ICICI Bank Ltd, and K Mohan Bhaktha, executive director of Weizmann Forex Ltd will be the international resource persons in this programme along with national experts in this area.

Maggi noodles case

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court has concluded hearing a case filed by Nestlé India challenging a local regulator’s report that Maggi instant noodles contained excess lead, a lawyer for the company said. The court will give a judgement at a later date, Rajesh Batra said in a statement late on Friday. Nestlé has been at the centre of India’s worst food scare in a decade after a regulator in Uttar Pradesh in May said it found excess lead in a sample of the firm’s popular Maggi noodles. The company withdrew the brand from Indian stores last month. It has since challenged the findings of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) at the Bombay High Court. The lawyer said television reports on Friday that the court had asked FSSAI and Nestlé India to retest Maggi noodles were incorrect.

China steel dispute

WASHINGTON: World Trade Organisation (WTO) says China broke global trade rules by failing to comply with an earlier WTO ruling and continuing to impose duties on specialty steel imports. The decision announced on Friday was a victory for the United States and steelmakers AK Steel in West Chester, Ohio, and Allegheny Ludlum in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. The case dates back to 2010 when China imposed duties on a high-tech specialty steel used in power plants. Saying the duties violated trade rules, the US took the case to the WTO and won. Despite the ruling, China reintroduced duties on the steel in 2013. The US went back to the WTO, charging that China was not complying with earlier decision. China eliminated the duties a few months ago.

SKorea exports down

SEOUL: South Korea’s exports shrank in July for a seventh straight month due to sluggish global demand and low oil prices, government data showed on Saturday. Exports fell 3.3 per cent from a year earlier to $46.61 billion in July, while imports plunged 15.3 per cent to $38.85 billion, the Ministry of Trade, Industries and Energy said. Car exports fell 6.2 per cent on-year to $3.99 billion, while shipments of mobile communication devices including cellphones plunged 16 per cent to $2.15 billion.