NDEP, Friesland Raise NASD Exchange by 0.51% at Midweek

By Adedapo Adesanya

FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc and Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) returned the bulls to the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange on Wednesday, May 26.

At the midweek trading session, the unlisted securities market closed higher by 0.51 per cent after spending two days in the negative territory.

This expanded the market capitalisation of the exchange by N2.79 billion to N546.70 billion from N543.91 billion and increased the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) by 3.92 points to 769.12 points from 765.20 points.

Data from the NASD Exchange showed that NDEP Plc appreciated by N7.99 or 2.6 per cent to sell at N310 per share compared to N302.01 per share, while Friesland grew by N1.37 or 1.1 per cent to close at N130.37 per unit as against N129 per unit of the previous day.

Business Post reports that Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Group Plc suffered a decline of N1.16 or 5.4 per cent to sell at N21.31 per share in contrast to the previous N22.47 per share.

There was a drop in the volume of securities traded at the bourse by 43.7 per cent as investors exchanged 1.6 million units compared with 2.8 million units transacted by market participants on Tuesday.

Likewise, there was a decline in the value of shares traded yesterday by 22 per cent as shares worth N99.4 million exchanged hands, lower than N127.5 million transacted the previous day.

These transactions were carried out in 35 deals, 10.3 per cent lower than the 39 deals executed by investors at the preceding trading session.

Four companies accounted for the trades with the NGX Group executing 22 deals, Friesland and Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc had five deals each, while NDEP Plc recorded three deals.

NGX Group continued to be the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) as it has traded 228.6 million units of its shares for N5.2 billion. Swap Technologies & Telecomms Plc was in second place with 46.6 million units worth N41.0 million, while CSCS Plc held the third position with 28.5 million units of its shares worth N442.3 million.

In terms of value (year-to-date), NGX Group was also the most traded stock with the sale of 228.6 million units worth N5.2 billion, followed by NDEP with 2.6 million units valued at N811.0 million and Friesland with 5.5 million units valued at N695.4 million.