Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index jumped a whopping 90 points, week-on-week, on Thursday, with bulls outpacing the bears with the market showing signs of consolidation around the current levels.

“There is optimism in the market and the next critical level, 1,550, is in sight,” said one market participant.

The gains of last week were led by a buying interest in banking, hotels, non-life insurance, microfinance, and hydropower shares. A large number of investors continued buying stocks of companies they perceived as a value proposition.

The market’s consolidation phase may remain over the next few weeks before a sustained rally can push the index past 1,500, a critical support level, market participants say. The investor sentiments got strengthened after the market index breached the critical 1,300 level during the third week of the current year.

The focus of investors since the beginning of 2020 appears 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 1,434.57, up from 1,344.59 the previous week. The total turnover on Thursday rose to Rs2,785,004,908 from Rs1,773,805,746 the previous Thursday.

The total number of shares traded on the market, on Thursday, stood at 5,829,510. There were 23,900 transactions in all and as many as 180 company stocks got traded. At the end of trading last week, the total market capitalisation stood at Rs1,831,089.24 million from Rs1,715,727.10 million, a week earlier.

On Thursday, Shivam Cements Ltd’s shares were the most traded in terms of value as well as volume.

The market sentiments in recent weeks have been buoyed by the biggest merger in Nepal’s banking sector between Global IME and Janata Bank.

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