By Adedapo Adesanya
The 21st week of trading at the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange closed on a positive note as investors gained N10 billion in the five days the market opened for business.
According to the weekly NASD market review and analysis by Business Post, the market capitalisation rose to N1.05 trillion from N1.04 trillion in Week 20 just as the NASD OTC Securities Exchange Index rose by 0.22 per cent or 1.78 points to settle at 794.83 points in contrast to the previous week’s 793.05 points.
The expansion in the market capitalisation last week was due to the admission of Cititrust Holdings Plc into the trading platform, giving unlisted equity investors more options as they work to explore the exchange for better yields.
Another factor was the rise in the share prices of three securities led by NASD Plc, which appreciated by 2.0 per cent to N14.00 per unit from N13.72 per unit, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc gained 0.9 per cent to trade at N110.00 per share compared with the earlier week’s N109.00 per share, while Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc improved by 0.29 per cent to N17.00 per share from N16.95 per share.
In the week, Food Concepts Plc was the most traded security by volume with 3.9 million units, followed by NASD Plc with 3.1 million units, CSCS Plc with 516,900 units, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc with 244,156 units and Nipco Plc with 100,000 units.
However, NASD Plc was the most traded stock by value on a week-on-week basis with N44.3 million, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc recorded N26.7 million, CSCS Plc traded N9.5 million, UBN Property Plc posted N8.2 million, while Nipco Plc reported N6.2 million.
When the market closed for the week last Friday, the total trading value went up by 23.9 per cent to N98.8 million from N79.8 million, the trading volume went down by 73.3 per cent to 8.0 million units from 29.9 million units, while the number of deals declined by 25.9 per cent to 43 deals from 58 deals.
In the year so far, investors have transacted 3.2 billion units of securities worth N20.5 billion in 1,193 deals, while the exchange has posted a year-to-date return of 7.00 per cent despite uncertainties caused by the local and global macroeconomic headwinds.
Dipo Olowookere