By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange extended its stay in the bearish territory on Friday, May 27 after it further depreciated by 2 per cent.
The loss reported by the unlisted securities market in Nigeria yesterday was the fourth it was recording in five trading sessions and the pain was inflicted by four market heavyweights.
FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc, Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc, Nigeria Exchange (NGX) Group Plc and Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc were the decliners of the session.
At the trading day, Friesland dropped N9.14 or 7.0 per cent to close at N121.23 per share as against the previous N130.37 per share, NDEP Plc lost N7.52 or 2.5 per cent to close at N292.48 per unit as against N300 per unit of the earlier session, NGX Group went down by 92 kobo or 4.2 per cent to close at N21.17 per share as against the previous N22.09 per share, while CSCS Plc declined by 12 kobo or 0.7 per cent to close at N17.53 per unit as against N17.65 per unit it ended on Thursday.
The losses printed by these equities weakened the market capitalisation of the NASD Exchange by N10.93 billion to N534.70 billion from N545.63 billion and depleted the NASD Unlisted Securities Index (NSI) by 15.32 points to 752.30 points from 767.62 points.
Business Post observed that the volume of shares transacted yesterday depreciated by 11.65 per cent to 5.9 million units from 6.7 million units, but the value of the shares traded by investors increased by 2.8 per cent to N167.5 million from N162.8 million, with the number of deals rising by 36.5 per cent to 71 deals from 35 deals.
These deals were executed on the four companies with NGX Group accounting for 42 deals, CSCS Plc and Friesland accounted for 12 deals each, while NDEP Plc accounted for five deals.
NGX Group ended the session as the most traded stock by volume (year-to-date) with 240.9 million units of its shares worth N5.5 billion. Swap Technologies and Telecomms Plc was in second place with 46.6 million units worth N41.0 million, while CSCS Plc held the third position with 28.6 million units of its shares worth N443.7 million.
In terms of value (year-to-date), NGX Group was the most traded with 240.9 million units valued at N5.5 billion, followed by NDEP Plc with 2.8 million units worth N856.2 million and Friesland with 5.6 million units valued at N712.6 million.
