Bears Pull NASD Market Cap to N615.91bn in Week 44

By Adedapo Adesanya

Following the N1.13 billion week-on-week loss posted at the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange last week, the market capitalisation closed at N615.91 billion in the 44th week of trading this year compared with N617.04 billion it ended in the 43rd trading week.

The bears took control of the OTC market as a result of the influence of two of the securities admitted on the trading platform and this subsequently dragged down the NASD Security Index (NSI) by 0.18 per cent or 1.37 points to close the week at 745.49 points against 746.86 of the previous week.

Business Post reports that Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc led the losers last week after its value went down by 1.3 per cent to N17.00 per unit from the previous week’s N17.22 per unit and was joined by NASD Plc, which depreciated by 0.4 per cent to trade at N19.10 per share as against the preceding week’s N19.17 per share.

In the week, there was a 50.4 per cent decrease in the total value of stocks transacted by investors as shares worth N60.1 million were traded compared to the N121.1 million carried out in the previous week.

However, the volume of stocks bought and sold in the week increased by 93.4 per cent to 3.8 million units from 2.0 million units in week 43, while the number of deals depreciated by 33.9 per cent to 43 trades from the 65 deals executed a week earlier.

At the close of the week, Swap Technologies and Telecomms Plc was the most traded security by volume with 2 million units. NASD Plc traded 884,182 units, CSCS Plc exchanged 654,650 units, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc traded 243,662 units while Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc sold 50 units.

In terms of the value of trades in the week, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc topped with N30.4 million, NASD Plc recorded N16.9 million, CSCS Plc traded N11.4 million, Swap Technologies and Telecomms Plc posted N1.3 million, while NDEP Plc had N12,250.

In the year so far, NASD Security Index has increased by 0.52 per cent, while investors have traded 12.8 billion units of shares worth N29.9 billion in 4,714 deals.