CSCS Further Drags NASD Index Down by 0.92%

By Adedapo Adesanya

Trading activities at the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange remained in the bearish zone on Wednesday after it closed the session with a decline of 0.92 per cent.

This scrapped off 6.82 points from the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) to 736.53 points from 743.35 points of the previous session and weakened the market capitalisation by N5.63 billion to N608.51 billion from the preceding day’s N614.14 billion.

The day’s poor performance was caused by the decline in the share price of Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc. The company depreciated by N1.25 or 7.5 per cent to settle at N16.70 per unit compared with N17.95 per unit it closed a day earlier.

The loss printed by CSCS suppressed the gains posted by NASD Plc. The stock appreciated yesterday by N1.38 or 8.5 per cent to wrap the day at N16.23 per share in contrast to N14.85 per share it finished on Tuesday.

On the activity chart, the volume of securities traded at the bourse by investors increased at the midweek session by 100.1 per cent as a total of 252,778 stocks exchanged hands compared with the 126,310 stocks traded at the preceding session.

However, the value of securities transacted by investors decreased by 61.9 per cent to N4.4 million from the N11.6 million posted on Tuesday, while the number of deals remained unchanged during the session as 10 deals.

A further look into the activity table showed that Food Concepts Plc remained as the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) as it has traded 11.4 billion units of its shares for N14.4 billion. Lighthouse Financial Services Plc was second for transacting 1.1 billion shares valued at N546.1 million, while Geo Fluids Plc was in third place with the sale of 1.0 billion equities worth N700.1 million.

Also, in terms of value, Food Concepts Plc topped the chart for selling 11.4 billion units of its securities worth N14.4 billion. Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Group Plc remained in the second spot with 456.5 million units of its securities valued at N9.2 billion, while VFD Group Plc has sold 10.4 million units worth 3.5 billion.