By Adedapo Adesanya
The first trading session on the floor of the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange ended in a stalemate on Monday, May 18 even as the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Group Plc recorded a loss.
Business Post reports that the total value of the unlisted securities market remained static at N546.20 billion yesterday just as the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) closed flat at 768.42 points.
The share price of NGX Group reduced significantly yesterday by N1.61 or 7.2 per cent to close at N20.64 per unit as against N22.25 per unit of the preceding trading session. However, this decline in the price of the company, a bellwether, did not affect the outcome of the market.
At the market on Monday, there was a drop in the volume of securities traded by investors by 62.8 per cent as 19.7 million units of shares exchanged hands compared with the 52.9 million units of stocks transacted by market participants last Friday.
However, there was a jump in the value of shares traded yesterday by 87.1 per cent as securities worth N422.9 million exchanged hands in contrast to the previous session’s N226.1 million.
These transactions were carried out in 55 deals, 3.5 per cent higher than the 40 deals of the earlier trading day.
At the close of business, NGX Group was the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 205.6 million units worth N4.7 billion, followed by Swap Technologies Plc with 46.6 million units worth N41 million and Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc with 27.2 million units of its shares worth N419.3 million.
In the same vein, NGX Group was the most traded stock by value on a year-to-date basis with the sale of 205.6 million units of its securities worth N4.7 billion. It was followed by the Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc which has traded 2.5 million units valued at N763.4 million and FrieslandCampina WAMCO Plc, which has exchanged 4.4 million units for N557.6 million.
Dipo Olowookere