By Adedapo Adesanya
The bears refused to leave the floor of the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange on Friday, October 9 as the unlisted securities market recorded another loss.
The fall in market performance can be attributed to another decline recorded by the previous day’s price loser, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc. The company printed a loss of N1.05 or 0.76 per cent as its share price closed at N137.14 per unit in contrast to N138.19 per unit it traded on Thursday.
This made the NASD Unlisted Securities Index (NSI) to depreciate by 1.4 points or 0.19 per cent to 723.13 points from 724.53 points it finished at the previous session.
Similarly, the market capitalisation went down by 0.19 per cent or N1.03 billion as it ended the week at N531.19 billion compared with N532.22 billion it closed at the preceding session.
In terms of the level of activity yesterday, there was a marginal rise of 0.48 per cent in the total value of securities transacted by investors as stocks worth N3.24 million were exchanged at the bourse compared to N3.20 million worth of shares traded at the preceding session.
However, the volume of stocks traded by market participants reduced by 42.8 per cent to 23,581 units from the 41,240 units bought and sold at the previous session.
These trades were completed in eight deals, lower than the 11 deals recorded on Thursday by 27.3 per cent or three deals and they were executed on two companies listed on the exchange; FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc, which accounted for seven deals and Afriland Properties Plc, which accounted for one deal.
At the close of transactions on Friday, ARM Life Plc remained the highest traded stock by volume (year-to-date) with 7.4 billion units worth N4.6 billion. It was followed by Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc, which traded 203 million units valued at N2.7 billion, and Food Concepts Plc, which traded 128.1 million units of its shares worth N90.2 million.
Equally, ARM Life Plc also remained as the company with the most traded stock by value (year-to-date) after trading 7.4 billion units worth N4.6 billion. NDEP Plc has transacted 10.4 million units valued at N3.2 billion, while CSCS Plc has exchanged 203 million units worth N2.7 billion.