By Adedapo Adesanya
The first trading session of the new year at the unlisted securities market in Nigeria closed flat on Thursday, January 2, 2020, for the fifth consecutive session.
The market capitalisation of the NASD OTC Exchange, which closed the last trading day of 2019 at N501.14 billion, remained at the same amount at the close of transactions yesterday. Similarly, the Unlisted Security Index (USI) ended the day at 697.54 points just like it did at the previous session.
But despite the market closing flat on Thursday, the level of activity improved, with the volume, value and the number of deals appreciated at the close of business. Investors showed more interests in the market, buying up some stocks they feel could fetch them better yields both in the short and mid-term during the year.
This led to the volume of shares traded by investors skyrocketing by 250,545.2 percent or 29,063,240 units to 29,074,840 units compared with the 11,600 units of shares exchanged on the last day of trading in 2019 on Tuesday, December 31.
Equally, the value of transactions appreciated by 2,068 percent or N26.7 million to close at N28.0 million in contrast to N1.3 million recorded at the previous session, while the total number of deals executed jumped by 400 percent or eight deals as a total of 10 deals were performed at the exchange as against the two deals recorded on Tuesday.
The market closed the session recording no price gainer or loser.
The year opened with ARM Life Plc selling the highest volume of shares as 29 million units of its shares worth N18.3 million were traded during the session, while Nipco Plc followed in second place with 50,000 units traded at N3.3 million.
Niger Delta Exploration and Production Plc (NDEP) claimed the third spot as the oil and gas investment company traded 20,000 units valued at N5.9 million, while Friesland Campina Wamco Plc occupied the fourth position with 4,840 units exchanged for N580,800.
Dipo Olowookere