By Adedapo Adesanya
The first trading day of the week at the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange ended with a 0.08 per cent loss on Monday.
The welcoming of the bears to the unlisted securities market was driven by the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Group Plc and Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc.
These two cousins weakened the gains recorded by Food Concepts Plc yesterday as the shares of the operators of the popular Chicken Republic appreciated by 2 kobo or 2.4 per cent to 82 kobo per unit as against the previous 80 kobo per unit.
Business Post reports that NGX Group lost 1.4 per cent or 28 kobo during the session to close at N20.52 per unit compared to N20.80 per unit it closed at the last trading session.
In the same pattern, CSCS Plc lost 0.06 per cent or 11 kobo to close the session at N18.45 per share in contrast to N18.56 per share of the earlier trading day.
The decline suffered by these two stocks reduced the market capitalisation of the bourse marginally by N430 million to N549.18 billion from N549.61 billion and cut the NASD Unlisted Securities Index (NSI) by 0.61 points to 772.61 points from 773.22 points.
On Monday, the volume of shares transacted by the market participants reduced by 9.7 per cent to 2.4 million units from 2.6 million units, while the value of the securities decreased by 83.7 per cent to N8.9 million from N54.8 million, with the number of deals dropping 46 per cent to 27 deals from 50 deals.
CSCS Plc accounted for the highest number of deals with nine and was trailed by NGX Group with eight, while Food Concepts Plc and FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc recorded four deals each, with Mixta Real Estate Plc contributing two deals.
NGX Group closed the session as the company with the highest number of traded shares (year-to-date) with 249.4 million units valued at N5.7 billion. Swap Technologies and Telecomms Plc followed with 46.6 million units valued at N41 million, while CSCS Plc has traded 29.2 million units valued at N453.6 million.
In terms of value, NGX Group was also on top of the chart with 249.4 million units worth N5.7 billion, followed by NDEP Plc with 2.8 million units worth N882.5 million and Friesland with 5.7 million units worth N725.7 million.
