By Adedapo Adesanya
Depreciation in the stock prices of Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc, Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc, Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Group, and UBN Property Plc depressed the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange on Friday by 1.23 per cent.
NDEP Plc lost N29.50 or 10.9 per cent to sell at N270.50 per unit compared to N300 per unit it closed the previous session. CSCS Plc closed 44 kobo or 2.4 per cent lower to sell at N18.20 per share in contrast to the previous session’s N18.64 per share.
On its part, the NGX Group went down by 3 kobo or 0.2 per cent to close the day at N17.48 per unit versus N17.51 per unit it finished on Thursday, while UBN Property Plc declined by 10 kobo or 9.1 per cent to trade at N1.20 per share as against the previous N1.10 per share it ended a day earlier.
These losses reduced the market capitalisation of NASD by N8.18 million to close at N655.45 billion compared with N663.63 billion of the preceding day, while the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) decreased by 9.4 points to end the day at 754.11 points as against 763.51 points it recorded at the previous session.
During the session, investors traded 9.6 million shares, 22.1 per cent lower than the 12.4 million shares transacted at the previous day.
Equally, the value of securities traded on Friday reduced by 55.6 per cent to N415.3 million from N935.4 million, while the number of deals decreased by 25.5 per cent to 38 deals from 51 deals of the preceding day.
With 1.0 billion units of its shares traded for N700.1 million, Geo Fluids Plc ended the week as the most active stock by volume (year-to-date). NGX Group trailed with 339.9 million units valued at N7.3 billion, with Swap Technologies & Telecomms Plc in third place for trading 46.6 million units worth N41.0 million.
In terms of value, NGX Group was on top of the chart for selling 339.9 million units of its securities traded for N7.3 billion, VFD Group Plc remained in the second spot with 4.1 million units valued at N1.2 billion, while NDEP Plc has traded 3.2 million units valued at N973.5 million.