By Adedapo Adesanya
The bears growled on the floor of the NASD Over-the-Counter OTC Securities Exchange on Wednesday, September 16 as they chased away the bulls after being in charge for two previous sessions.
The return of the bears was as a result of the 0.69 per cent decline suffered by the bourse due to the losses printed by the share prices of Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc and Afriland Properties Plc.
The Nigerian securities depository company, CSCS Plc, had its equity depreciating by 69 kobo or 5.1 per cent to close at N13.81 per share versus N14.50 per unit of the previous day.
Also, the share value of Afriland Plc went down by 16 kobo or 10.67 per cent during the trading session to close at N1.50 per unit as against N1.66 per unit it closed a day earlier.
The poor performance of the two stocks resulted in the N3.67 billion lost by investors yesterday, which reduced the market capitalisation of the bourse to N530.45 billion from N534.12 billion at the previous session.
Also, the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) depreciated by 4.99 points at the close of business to 722.13 points from the 727.12 points quoted a day earlier.
A look at the activity chart showed that there was a drop in units of securities exchanged by investors. A total of 812,166 units were traded at the midweek session, 20.7 per cent lower than the 1.02 million units traded a day before.
Similarly, the value of securities traded on Wednesday stood at N8.2 million, 89.0 per cent lower than the previous session’s N74.4 million.
These trades were done from nine deals, 18.18 per cent or two deals lower than the 11 deals of Tuesday. The deals of yesterday were from four companies.
A breakdown showed that FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc and CSCS Plc had three deals each followed by the Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc with two deals and Afriland Plc with a single deal.
Business Post reports that there were no price gainers at the close of transactions on Wednesday.
ARM Life Plc closed the session as the company with the highest number of traded securities on a year-to-date basis. The insurer has traded 7.4 billion units of its shares worth N4.6 billion.
CSCS Plc was in second place with 202.2 million units worth N2.7 billion, while Food Concept Plc held the third position with 125.1 million units of its shares worth N88.1 million.
Equally, ARM Life Plc remained as the most traded stock by value (year-to-date) with 7.4 billion units valued at N4.6 billion, while NDEP Plc trailed for trading 8.8 million units worth N2.7 billion, with CSCS Plc in the third spot for transacting 202.2 million units valued at N2.7 billion.
Modupe Gbadeyanka