NASD Posts Strong Gains as NEDP Share Price Rises Third Time

By Adedapo Adesanya

Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc saw another gain on Friday as its share price appreciated by N24.85 to N319.85 per share. The company was the only price gainer yesterday and it was the third consecutive time this week the firm was closing in green.

The performance of the oil and gas investment company influenced the NASD Over the Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange, which closed on a very strong note yesterday.

Business Post reports that the end of the week’s transactions on Friday, October 24, 2019, both the NASD Security Index (NSI) and market capitalization were pointing north.

The market capitalization, which dropped to N494.67 billion on Thursday, rose by 1.02 percent or N5.05 billion on Friday to settle at N499.72 billion, while the NSI, which ended the previous session at 688.54 points, finished yesterday at 695.57 points, indicating an increase by 1.02 percent or 7.03 points.

However, the level of activity depreciated at the trading session, with the volume of transactions going down by 83.8 percent or 406,722 units to 78,628 units from 485,350 units.

In the same vein, the total value of transactions recorded a decline of N4.68 million or 43.8 percent at the end of transactions to N6.02 million from N10.7 million recorded on Thursday.

Also, the total number of deals executed by investors dropped by over 60 percent, as only 5 deals were performed at the exchange as against the 14 deals previously recorded.

Meanwhile, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc was the only price loser on Friday as its stock went down by 3 kobo or 0.25 percent to trade at N12 per share from N12.03 per share.

However, this did not stop the securities clearing company from maintaining its number one spot on the top trades (year-to-date) by value by chart with 202,272,698 units worth N2.53 billion. UBN Properties kept its second position on the list with 884,529,600 units of its stocks sold for N1.2 billion.

On the top of trades (year-to-date) by volume table, Food Concept Plc remained top with a total transaction of 1,158,797,004 units valued at N843.97 billion, while UBN Properties followed with 891,085,220 units worth N1.21 billion.