By Adedapo Adesanya
The portfolios of Investors at the NASD Over-the-Counter OTC Securities Exchange reduced last week by 2.24 per cent as appetite waned because of happenings in the country.
This shrank the market capitalisation of the 49th week of trading by N12.23 billion to N534.8 billion compared to N547.06 billion it ended the preceding week.
In the same vein, the situation affected the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI), which depreciated by 16.46 points to settle at 719.53 points as against 735.99 points of the earlier week.
Business Post observed that the unlisted securities market was battered in the five-day trading week by two bellwether stocks; Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc and FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc.
For NDEP, its share price went down by 7.5 per cent to close at N300.76 per unit versus N325.15 per unit it closed the preceding week, while FrieslandCampina lost 5.7 per cent to settle at N132 per share compared with N140 per share it closed the prior week.
A look at the activity chart showed that last week, there was a 7.5 per cent increase in the total volume of stocks traded by investors to 1.46 million units compared with 1.36 million units transacted the previous week.
Equally, the value of stocks transacted by market participants during the week rose by 452.8 per cent to N347.96 million from N62.96 million in week 48. Also, the number of deals recorded increased by 50 per cent to 33 deals from 22 deals.
The week closed with NDEP Plc ranked top among the five most traded securities by volume with 891,356 units. Others are FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc (545,415 units), Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc (26,400 units), Afriland Plc with 1,000 units while Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc closed with 500 units.
In terms of the top traded securities by value, NDEP Plc led with N275.3 million. FrieslandCampina recorded N72.3 million, CSCS printed N382,701, Afriland traded N1,350, while IGI traded N35.
On a year-to-date basis, the unlisted securities market closed on a positive note as there was an increase in performance with the index year-to-date return rising by 3.1 per cent. In terms of the transactions, a total of 7,914,258,808 units of securities worth N12.3 billion have been traded by investors in 1,423 deals.
