After witnessing its best period since late April the previous week, the Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index retreated into the negative territory once more on Thursday due to profit-booking by investors in the absence of a catalyst, brokers said.

“The buying momentum seen in the earlier two weeks was absent and the turnover nearly halved,” said one broker. “There was profit-booking in insurance and microfinance stocks,” a broker said.

The market index closed on Thursday at 1,149.64, down from 1,172.64 the previous week. The total turnover on Thursday fell to Rs419,088,133 from Rs764,025,213 the previous Thursday. The total traded shares stood at 1,289,134 from 2,102,061 a week earlier. There were 5,960 transactions in all and as many as 172 scrips were traded. At the end of trading last week, the total market capitalization stood at Rs531,905.14 million.

NMB Bank and Nepal Bank shares were the notable performers last week. On Thursday, the NMB shares saw a turnover of Rs123,193,271, while Nepal Bank’s total transactions amounted to Rs18,767,954.

One major catalyst driving the current market sentiments is the biggest merger in Nepal’s banking sector between Global IME and Janata Bank, which got formalised recently.

On Thursday, the banking sub-index fell 0.19 percent to 1,039.30, while microfinance fell 0.31 percent to 1,609.76 and Life Insurance went down 0.76 percent. However, hotels and mutual fund sub-indices rose.

Market participants cite lack of liquidity as their biggest concern and the key reason for the stock market’s underperformance.