Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index jumped a critical level and rose 47 points week-on-week at the end of the second trading week of 2020 as investors bought into some of the attractively-valued microfinance and non-life insurance stocks, brokers said.

“The market is preparing for a short-term rally with the index above 1,200. The focus of investors will now shift toward stocks that can be held over the long-term and can generate good dividends,” a broker said.

The market index closed on Thursday at 1,213.11, up from 1,166.21 the previous week. The total turnover on Thursday rose to Rs837,035,757 from Rs532,211.211 seen on the previous Thursday. The total traded shares stood at 3,849,722 compared to 1,660,406, a week earlier. There were 9,656 transactions in all and as many as 177 company stocks were traded. At the end of trading last week, the total market capitalisation stood at Rs1,546,585.52 million.

Civil Bank Ltd Promoter Share was the star of last week's trading in terms of both value and volume.

The market sentiment in recent weeks have been led by 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 0.13 percent to 1,085.01, while the trading sub-index rose 0.63 percent to 674.54. Life Insurance sub-index rose too, by 0.32 percent. However, the manufacturing sub-index fell 0.44 percent, while microfinance rose 3.49 percent and non-life insurance was up 2.07 percent.

Market participants cite lack of liquidity as their biggest concern and the primary reason behind the domestic stock market’s underperformance.