By Adedapo Adesanya
The decline in the price of Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc further dampened the mood at the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange on Wednesday, weakening the exchange by 0.64 per cent.
At the close of business yesterday, the market capitalisation of the OTC bourse went down by N3.95 billion to N611.74 billion from N615.69 billion, while the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) decreased by 4.78 points to wrap the session at 740.45 points compared with 745.23 points recorded at the previous session.
The stock price of CSCS Plc again depreciated by 79 kobo or 4.8 per cent to finish at N16.55 per unit in contrast to the previous closing price of N17.34 per unit.
The company was the only price mover at the unlisted securities market during the trading session.
A look at the level of activity showed that there was also a negative movement at the NASD exchange at the midweek session as the volume of shares transacted by investors went down by 55.4 per cent to 311,000 units from 12.1 million units traded at the preceding session.
Also, the value of shares decreased by 55.9 per cent to N5.3 million from Tuesday’s N12.1 million, while the number of deals reduced by 60 per cent to four deals from 10 deals of the preceding day.
At the close of transactions, Food Concepts Plc remained as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-day basis with a turnover of 11.4 billion units of its shares worth N14.4 billion. Lighthouse Financial Services Plc, which has traded 1.1 billion units worth N546.2 million, occupied the second spot, while Geo Fluids Plc, which claimed the third place, has exchanged 1.0 billion units worth N700.1 million.
By value on a year-to-date basis, Food Concepts Plc was also on top of the chart with the sale of 11.4 billion units worth N14.4 billion, followed by Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Group Plc with 456.5 million units valued at N9.2 billion, and VFD Group Plc with 10.4 million units valued at N3.5 billion.