By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange returned to the territory of the bears on Tuesday following a 0.05 per cent fall at the close of transactions.
The outcome came on the back of loss recorded by Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc. The Nigerian depository company suffered a 6 kobo or 0.3 per cent decline during the trading day to close at N18.10 per share as against N18.16 per share it ended at the last session.
As a result, the NASD unlisted securities index (NSI) moved down by 0.35 points to 738.06 points from 738.41 points, while the market capitalisation depreciated by N300 million to wrap the day at N624.97 billion in contrast to N625.27 billion it finished on Monday.
It was observed that despite the poor performance of the unlisted securities market yesterday, the level of activity improved as the volume of transactions increased by 179.9 per cent to 6.7 million units from the previous day’s 2.4 million units.
Also, the value of trades went up during the session by 146.4 per cent as investors exchanged N59.4 million worth of shares compared with the N24.1 million worth of shares traded on Monday.
However, the number of deals carried out by market participants went down by 30 per cent to 14 deals from the 20 deals executed at the previous session.
CSCS Plc remained as the most traded security by volume on a year-to-date basis with 655.8 million units sold for N13.8 billion and was followed by NASD Plc with the sale of 13.4 million units valued at N139.2 million, and Food Concepts Plc with 4.0 million units transacted for N3.2 million.
The most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis was also CSCS Plc with a turnover of 655.8 million units valued at N13.8 billion, trailed by VFD Group Plc with the sale of 916,161 units worth N331.5 million, and FrieslandCampina WAMCO Plc with a turnover of 2.0 million units traded for N248.6 million.
Modupe Gbadeyanka