By Adedapo Adesanya
The new month opened bullish at the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange following a marginal 0.05 per cent rise on Wednesday, September 1.
The day’s favourable outcome came as a market bellwether, Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc, made a 22 kobo or 1.2 per cent gain, lifting the company’s equity price to N18 per unit from N17.78 per unit.
As a result of the gain printed by CSCS, the NASD unlisted security index (NSI) moved up by 0.34 points to 744.68 points from 744.34 points, while the market capitalisation went up by N290 million to wrap the day at N647.25 billion compared with the previous N646.96 billion.
It was not a good day for Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Group Plc at the NASD Exchange yesterday as its stock price depreciated by 41 kobo or 1.9 per cent to close at N255 per share in contrast to N259.85 per share it closed a day earlier.
Despite the market closing positive, the trading volume went south by 6.8 per cent as a total of 684,398 units of shares exchanged hands compared with 734,207 units of shares transacted on Tuesday.
In the same pattern, the trading value sank by 52.1 per cent to N11.2 million from the previous day’s N23.3 million, while the day also witnessed a 39.1 per cent drop in the number of deals to 14 deals from the 23 deals carried out at the previous session.
At the close of trades, Geo Fluids Plc remained as the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) for selling 1.0 billion stocks for N700.1 million. NGX Group Plc got the second spot as it has traded 415.3 million units valued at N8.6 billion, with Food Concepts Plc in third place for transacting 295.0 million units worth N386 million.
In terms of value on a year-to-date basis, NGX Group Plc topped the table with the sale of 415.3 million units of its securities for N8.6 billion. VFD Group Plc remained in the second spot with 6.6 million units of its securities valued at N2.2 billion, while FrieslandCampina Plc settled in third place with 8.2 million units valued at N1.0 billion.
