By Adedapo Adesanya
The Managing Director of NASD Plc, Mr Eguarekhide Longe, has said the organisation would make efforts to engage more with stakeholders in 2024 and implement some initiatives commenced in 2023.
He gave this assurance in his 2024 address to stakeholders over the weekend.
“The trading and return indices read relatively positively. Market growth indicated by the number of admitted securities and market capitalisation year-on-year, show some progress despite the exit of a notable company experienced in the year (VFD PLC),” a part of his note obtained by Business Post read.
He added that, “The NSI, with a growth of 31 per cent in the year, showed strong resilience and improved interaction with the NASD OTC Exchange by the investing public and other market participants,” stressing that the bourse is not going to rest on its oars.
“While there was a modicum of progress established in the activities on our market in 2023, it is obvious that the market requires considerable improvement in breadth and content to occupy sustainable positioning within the Nigerian capital market.
“We will implement in the current year a lot of the initiatives we commenced in 2023 and promise to engage with and inform all our stakeholders of activities and updates more regularly during the year,” Mr Longe added.
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange witnessed a stellar year of growth in the 2023 trading year, spurred by increases in the market capitalization, index, as well as other trading parameters.
In the year under review, market growth indicated by the number of admitted securities and market capitalization year-on-year showed some progress was made despite a notable exit.
The market cap, which is calculated by multiplying the prices of all admitted stocks on the platform, jumped by 35 per cent as it ended the year at N1.26 trillion versus N932.51 billion in 2022.
On two occasions during the year, the bourse crossed the N1 trillion mark and remained there unlike in 2022, it remained and continued rising.
The NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) made a 31 per cent growth to end at 927.77 basis points from 709.66 points in the same period a year before.
In the year, there were three freshly admitted stocks as the number rose 7.5 per cent to 43 from 40. These companies were IPWA Plc (formerly International Paints West Africa Limited), Lagos Building Investment Company (LBIC) Plc, and Purple Real Estate Income Plc.
In the trading year, VFD Group Plc announced its exit and migrated to Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited.
The volume of transactions in 2023 rose by 24 per cent as 4.84 billion units of stocks were transacted compared to 2022’s figure of 3.89 billion while the value of deals witnessed a 34 per cent growth to N37.57 billion versus N28.02. These were realized in 3,838 deals, a 42 per cent rise from 2,706 deals executed in 2022.
The high-flying company, Aradel Holdings Plc formerly known as Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc, was the highest gaining stock in the year as it saw a 480 per cent rise in its stock from N197.78 to N1,089.00.
It was followed by UBN Property with 145 per cent (80 kobo to N1.90), Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc 69 per cent (N12.46 to N19.84), FrieslandCampina Wamco with 22 per cent (N67.38 to N80), and 11 Plc (N154 to N180).
CSCS Plc was the most valued stock with N21.9 billion followed by VFD Group with N5.9 billion, Aradel Plc with N2.7 billion, UBN Property Plc with N2.2 billion, and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc with N1.9 billion.
Modupe Gbadeyanka