Investors Shun Trading at NASD Exchange

By Adedapo Adesanya

There was no trade at the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange on Wednesday as investors stayed away from the market.

It was observed that during the midweek trading session, the ravaging coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic pushed investors away.

This left the major performance indicators at their previous levels, with the market capitalisation at N508.84 billion and the unlisted securities index at 692.71 points.

In a tweet sent from its official Twitter handle, @NASDNG, the bourse confirmed that, “The NASD OTC recorded no trades on its platform as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic continues to dampen trading activities across markets.”

The NASD had last week initiated a remote working policy as part of a Business Continuity Plan (BCP), but this has still not found favour with investors, who prefer to trade cautiously like they did on Tuesday and watch things from the sidelines.

“The NASD OTC Market today Wednesday, April 01, 2020 with no movement in price, the NSI and Market Capitalisation closed at 692.71 points and N508.84 respectively,” the exchange wrote in a separate tweet on Wednesday.

Data on the official website of NASD OTC Exchange still had figures of the activity level of Tuesday’s trading session, when the market closed flat.

During the session, a total of 250,000 units of unlisted stocks valued at N3.13 million were transacted in a single deal.

At the Tuesday session, ARM Life Plc was the most traded security by value (year-to-date), with 7.4 billion units traded for N4.6 billion, while Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc transacted 6.5 million units valued N2.03 billion, with FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc exchanging 2.2 million units of its securities valued at N269.7 million.

By volume, ARM Life Plc was still the busiest stock (year-to-date) with 7.4 billion units of its shares worth N4.6 billion, while Food Concept Plc trailed after trading 110 million units worth N77 million, with Lighthouse Financial Services transacting 47.7 million units worth N23.8 million.