Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index fell 13 points week-on-week as investors booked profits after the previous week’s rally.

‘All major sub-indices fell, which dragged the market index lower. However, the fundamentals remain strong and the market is expected to rise again in the coming weeks,” a broker said.

Market participants say the sentiments became stronger ever since the market breached the critical 1,300 level during the third week of the year. In the second and third weeks of January, the NEPSE index had shot up 144 points. The focus of investors since the beginning of the year seems to have shifted to stocks that can be held over the long-term and can generate good dividends.

The NEPSE index closed on Thursday at 1,297.47, down from 1,310.23 the previous week. The total turnover on Thursday fell to Rs1,384,209,412 from Rs1,699,995,107 seen the previous Thursday.

The total number of shares traded on the market on Thursday stood at 3,754,521 compared to 3,849,722 the same day, a week earlier. There were 15,316 transactions in all and as many as 172 company stocks were traded. At the end of trading last week, the total market capitalisation stood at Rs1,654,735.03 million.

On Thursday, NLIC was the top traded stock in terms of value, while the Global IME Bank’s shares were the top traded in terms of volume.

The market sentiments in recent weeks have been led by the biggest merger in Nepal’s banking sector between Global IME and Janata Bank, which got formalised in the last quarter of 2019.

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