Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc ensured that the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange closed the week 40 on a positive note.
The milk-producing company has been in the news lately over its acquisition of PZ Cussons’ Nutricima dairy business. The deal gives Friesland an additional production capacity to meet the growing demand for locally produced evaporated and powdered milk.
With a current market capitalisation of N137.2 billion, the stock price of the company gained N2.99 or 2.17 per cent last week to close at N140.49 per share compared with N137.50 per share it closed the preceding week.
The strong performance of Friesland, which was the single weekly price gainer, helped the bourse’s securities index to rise by 0.25 per cent to 734.39 points from 732.57 points of the preceding week.
It also pushed the market capitalisation of the NASD OTC Exchange higher by N1.34 billion to N539.46 billion from N538.12 billion it closed in week 39.
Business Post reports that two stocks depreciated in value last week and they were Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc and Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc.
NDEP, which has a market capitalisation of N56.6 billion, lost 0.14 per cent to close at N311.94 per share versus N312.38 per share, while CSCS, which currently holds a market capitalisation of N72.5 billion, fell by 2.03 per cent to N14.5 per share in contrast to N14.8.
On the activity chart, there was a 1,783.1 per cent increase in the trading value to N490.2 million from N26.0 million, while the trading volume decreased by 80.9 per cent to 2,326,164 units from 12,196,894 units.
However, there was an increase in the number of deals made during the four days of trading (due to the Independence Day celebration) as 37 trades were executed, 48 per cent more than 25 trades of the earlier week.
On a year-to-date basis, the index has risen by 5.3 per cent, while a total of 7,841,321,350 securities worth N11.4 billion have been traded this year in 1,208 deals.
During the week, NDEP Plc ranked top among the five most traded securities by volume with 1.53 million units sold. Others were Afriland Properties Plc (693,176 units), FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc (82,064 units), CSCS Plc (15,440 units) and UBN Properties Plc (5,484 units).
By value of trades, NDEP Plc equally led by N477.5 million while FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc followed with N11.4 million, Afriland Plc with N1.0 million, CSCS Plc with 225,076 and UBN Properties Plc with N6,910.
