By Adedapo Adesanya
The health of the unlisted securities market in Nigeria depreciated on Thursday, December 17 on the back of negative price movement in the stocks of Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc.
Business Post reports that at the close of transactions at the NASD Over-the-Counter Securities Exchange yesterday, the market was down by 1.29 per cent.
Specifically, the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) depreciated by 9.35 points to close at 716.50 points in contrast to the 725.85 points it finished on Wednesday, while the market capitalisation reduced by N6.95 billion to settle at N532.57 billion compared with N539.52 billion it ended the previous session.
CSCS Plc saw its equities lose N1.39 or to 9.0 per cent to trade at N14.01 per share as against N15.40 per share it was sold at the previous session.
However, there was 500,481.5 per cent surge in the volume of transactions witnessed at the bourse yesterday as 5.0 million units of securities exchanged hands compared to the 1,000 units of securities transacted at the midweek trading day.
Similarly, the value of trades done by market participants jumped by 455,467.1 per cent to N70.6 million from the N15,500 sold at the Wednesday session.
Also, there was a rise in the total number of deals executed by traders at the market by 400 per cent as five deals occurred in contrast to the one deal carried out a day earlier.
It was observed that from the five deals, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc accounted for three deals, while CSCS accounted for the remaining two deals.
At the close of business yesterday, ARM Life Plc stood firm as the most traded stock by volume (year-to-date) with 7.4 billion units of its shares worth N4.6 billion. CSCS Plc was in second place with 213.7 million units traded at N2.9 billion, while Food Concepts Plc followed in third place with 152.2 million units traded at N109.5 million.
In terms of the value of trades (year-to-date), ARM Life Plc still retained the zenith position with a total of 7.4 billion units worth N4.6 billion. The Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc came next with 11.9 million units of securities exchanged for N3.7 billion, while CSCS Plc sat in third place with 213.7 million valued at N2.9 billion.
