NASD Exchange Extends Rally as Investors Pocket N320m

By Adedapo Adesanya

The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange extended its stay in the bullish territory for the second session this week.

The NASD Exchange appreciated by 0.05 per cent at the close of transactions on Thursday courtesy of the 1.9 per cent growth posted by Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Group Plc.

This expanded the market capitalisation of the bourse by N320 million to N654.89 billion from N654.57 billion it quoted on Wednesday.

It subsequently increased the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) by 0.37 points to end the day at 753.47 points as against 753.10 points it recorded at the previous session.

Yesterday, shares of NGX Group closed 32 kobo or 1.9 per cent higher to N16.82 per unit as against N16.50 per unit of the preceding day.

This was enough to neutralise the losses recorded by Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc and Swap Technologies and Telecomms Plc.

NDEP Plc lost 50 kobo or 0.2 per cent to close at N251 per unit versus N250.51 per unit of the earlier day, while Swap Technologies and Telecomms Plc went down by 8 kobo or 11.3 per cent to end at 71 kobo per share as against 79 kobo per share it finished at the midweek session.

On the activity chart, there was a 57.4 per cent drop in the volume of securities traded by investors to 5.7 million units from the previous day’s 13.5 million units, while the value went down by 86.4 per cent to N18.5 million from N135.8 million, with the number of deals declining by 48.4 per cent to 16 deals from 31 deals.

Geo Fluids Plc Group continued to be the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 1.0 billion units worth N700.1 million, followed by NGX Group with 378.7 million units worth N7.9 billion, and Food Concepts Plc with 294.4 million units valued at N385.4 million.

But NGX Group Plc topped the chart by value (year-to-date) for trading 378.7 million securities for N7.9 billion, followed by VFD Group Plc with 6.3 million securities worth N2.0 billion, and NDEP Plc with 3.2 million securities valued at N984.3 million.