By Adedapo Adesanya
The 14th trading week on the floor of the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange closed positive with a 1.44 per cent growth.
During the week, which only had four trading sessions, the portfolios of investors expanded by N7.53 billion as a result of the gains printed by VFD Group Plc and Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc.
Business Post reports that VFD Group appreciated by 33.1 per cent to close the week at N299.02 per unit in contrast to the previous N224.66 per unit, while NDEP gained 7.9 per cent to settle at N340.00 per unit compared with the previous N315.00 per unit.
The gains reported by these two equities suppressed the loss posted by FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc. The milk maker depreciated by 2.5 per cent to end at N127 per share versus N130.27 per share it finished at the preceding week.
At the close of the week last Friday, the market capitalisation of the NASD OTC Exchange increased to N537.26 billion from N529.61 billion, while the NASD Security Index (NSI) went up to 755.84 points from 745.08 points.
Data obtained from the bourse showed that in the week, the total value of transactions reduced by 69.3 per cent to N65.6 million from N213.4 million, while the volume of trades fell by 70.1 per cent to 366,957 units from 1,226,023 units, with the number of deals decreasing by 33.3 per cent to 22 deals from 33 deals.
VFD Group was the most traded stock by volume last week with 150,000 units and was trailed by Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc (134,420 units), NDEP Plc (59,537 units) and Friesland (23,000 units).
In terms of the value of transactions, VFD Group was also the most active with N40.9 million. NDEP Plc recorded N19.6 million, Friesland posted N2.9 million, while CSCS Plc reported N2.1 million.
On a year-to-date level, investors have traded41.7 million securities worth N1.5 billion in 410 deals.
