By Adedapo Adesanya
The unlisted securities exchange returned to the positive territory on Wednesday, recording a 0.19 per cent lift rendered by gains in the equities of Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc.
The company recorded a N1.18 or 7.89 per cent growth to regain a strong position after a major sell-off on Tuesday to close yesterday at N14.95 per unit as against N13.77 per unit of the previous session.
This helped the NASD Securities Index (NSI) to move up by 1.39 points to 721.93 points from its previous 720.54 points and equally raised the market capitalisation by N1.02 billion to N530.31 billion from N529.29 billion.
During the midweek trading session, the unlisted securities market had a price loser in FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc but it could not determine the ultimate direction of the market. The equity price of the dairy giant went down by N5 to close at N125 per share as against N130 per share it previously quoted.
On the activity chart, the total number of deals carried out by investors depreciated by eight deals or 44.44 per cent to 10 deals from the previous day’s 18 deals.
Business Post reports that the deals were executed on seven companies with Food Concept Plc recording three deals, CSCS Plc followed with two deals, while FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc, First Trust Mortgage Bank, Resourcery Plc, Mixta Real Estate Plc and UBN Properties Plc recorded one deal apiece.
There was a decline in the volume of transactions at the market on Wednesday. The volume of shares traded by investors dropped by 49.4 per cent to 121,250 units from 239,660 units.
Similarly, the value of securities transacted by market participants during the midweek session reduced by 9.5 per cent from N3.9 million to N3.5 million.
At the close business, ARM Life Plc was the company with the highest volume of shares traded (year-to-date) with 7.4 billion units worth N4.6 billion. CSCS Plc was in second place with 201.4 million units worth N2.7 billion, while Food Concept Plc held the third position with 125.1 million units worth N88.1 million.
Also, the underwriter was the company with the highest value of traded stocks (year-to-date) with 7.4 billion units of securities traded for N4.6 billion.
Oil and gas investment company, Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc, remained in the second spot with 8.8 million units of its securities valued at N2.7 billion followed by CSCS Plc, which has traded 201.4 million units valued at N2.7 billion.
