Major floods and landslides triggered by relentless rainfall have battered Nepal, killing almost 200 people and causing widespread destruction.
Officials reported on Monday that the death toll from the monsoon floods and landslides has risen to 193 across the Himalayan nation, with at least 31 people still missing and many others injured.
The catastrophic floodwaters have destroyed many homes, cut off highways, and downed power lines.
Almost one-third of the country’s power supply, around 1,100 MW of electricity, was shut down by flooding and nearly all the country’s highways, including those connecting the capital city of Kathmandu to the rest of the country, have been blocked by flooding, landslides and debris, according to police.
Maya Hhapa Magar, a resident of Balkhu, a suburb of Kathmandu, recounted the terrifying moment the floodwaters arrived and wreaked havoc.
"It was around 4:30 in the morning. The flood entered here and swept away everything. Everything is destroyed. There is nothing out here. We don't have anything to eat. Everything is swept away by the flood. We were at least able to escape and save ourselves," said the survivor.
Rainfall of this intensity has not been seen in over a decade, with some of the worst-hit areas reporting up to 322.2 mm over the last few days.
"Compared to last year, the water level has increased. It has reached the highest level. I had seen such a flood around 15 to 20 years ago. This flooding is something unimaginable for us," said Rajesh Kumar Maharjan, a resident of hard-hit Lalitpur.
Nepal has seen higher than average monsoon rainfalls since the monsoon started in early June.
Nepal floods wreak havoc, killing nearly 200
The recent rally in China's stock markets, fueled by a series of stimulus measures, has significantly ignited investors' enthusiasm and bolstered market confidence in the country's economic recovery.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index surged 8.06 percent to close at 3,336.50 points on Monday, while the Shenzhen Component Index soared 10.67 percent to reach 10,529.76 points at the close.
The ChiNext Index, a NASDAQ-style subsidiary of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange tracking growth and tech-heavy enterprises, skyrocketed 15.36 percent to close at 2175.09 points.
Monday is the last trading day before the week-long National Day holiday. Chinese stock markets will be closed from Tuesday through Oct. 7.
The trading volume on the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses hit some 2.6 trillion yuan (about 370 billion U.S. dollars) on Monday, reaching a historic high.
More than 700 stocks listed on the two bourses hit their daily limits, with over 2,700 stocks gaining more than 10 percent.
China last week unveiled a slew of stimulus measures, including interest rate cuts, aimed at boosting economic growth and stabilizing the property market, triggering a broad rally in the stock market.
"In today's market performance, securities firms, liquor producers and real estate developers topped the gainers list. Judging by the current situation, with the continuous introduction of policies to ensure stable growth and marginal improvements in economic data, economic expectations are expected to warm up. With the establishment of a 'policy bottom,' optimistic anticipation of future policies is likely to further boost the stock market. Funds are still rapidly increasing positions in the main board index, indicating a potential continuation of the upward market trend," said Tian Lihui, director of the Institute of Finance and Development at Nankai University in north China's Tianjin Municipality.
Following this short-term surge, continued optimism over economic policies is likely to further elevate the stock market, with further increases expected in the Shanghai Composite Index, according to Yang Delong, chief economist at Qianhai Open Source Fund.
A series of monetary, fiscal, and capital market policies released in a short period of time are catalyzing this growth momentum, leading to a comprehensive reversal in policy expectations, Yang said, noting that optimistic economic forecasts are beginning to take root, significantly boosting investor confidence as a result.
China's stock market embraces epic surge ahead of National Day holiday
