Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index extended its bull-run on Thursday, surging a whopping 198 points week-on-week to close at 1,632.17 as investors lapped up stocks they viewed as a long-term value proposition amid improved market liquidity and upbeat sentiments.

“While in the last two years the market had been bearish, it got bottomed out at 1,100. Since the fundamentals were good at that level, the buying interest of investors got revived,” a broker said, adding the current market rally has got legs to it and the next level being eyed by the market participants is 1,700, as bulls continue to outpace the bears.

The NEPSE index hit an all-time high of 1,888 on July 27, 2016.

The market gains this week were led by a buying interest in banking, finance companies and development bank shares which have a dominant share in the index.

Brokers say the market’s consolidation phase may remain over the next few weeks before a sustained rally can push the index past 1,700. 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 on Thursday surged from 1,434.57 the previous week. The total turnover on Thursday nearly doubled to Rs4,460,536,251 from Rs2,785,004,908 the previous Thursday.

The total number of shares traded on the market, on Thursday, stood at 10,859,656. There were 35,467 transactions in all and as many as 180 company stocks got traded.

On Thursday, Nepal Life Insurance Company Limited’s shares were the most traded by value while the shares of Prabhu Bank Limited were the most traded in terms of volume.

The market sentiments were initially buoyed by the biggest merger in Nepal’s banking sector between Global IME and Janata Bank late last year. Traders previously cited lack of liquidity as their biggest concern and the primary reason for the domestic stock market’s underperformance.