By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) recorded a marginal gain of 0.03 per cent on Wednesday as some investors were prevented from trading because of the suspension of their trading accounts over failure to update their Know-Your-Customer (KYC) update form with their respective stockbrokers.
Investors were given till October 31, 2020, to update their information with their brokers and according to the directive of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to the brokerage firms, those who fail to supply the needed information would be blocked from trading.
The implementation of this policy commenced this week and from information gathered by Business Post, some investors have not been able to buy or sell shares.
In a few cases, those who have updated their KYC with stockbrokers have also not been able to trade and one of the brokers, Meristem, confirmed this when it sent a notice to its clients that, “Following SEC’s directive to suspend all accounts with outstanding KYC documents effective November 2, our attention has been brought to a market-wide suspension on some trading accounts in spite of having a complete KYC.
“Therefore, we would like to assure you that MERISTEM is actively working with the CSCS to ensure that our clients with complete and updated KYC documents are granted access to resume trading on their accounts.”
Business Post observed that this issue affected the market yesterday and resulted into a low level of trading activity as the volume of shares, the value and number of deals went down by 14.77 per cent, 20.45 per cent and 48.18 per cent respectively.
At the close of transactions for the midweek session, 286.4 million stocks worth N3.1 billion exchanged hands in 2,889 deals compared with the 336.1 million equities worth N3.9 billion transacted in 5,575 deals on Tuesday.
Access Bank was the most traded stock after 145.0 million units worth N1.2 billion exchanged hands during the trading day.
Zenith Bank transacted 21.9 million shares valued at N477.9 million, UBA exchanged 17.0 million stocks worth N130.0 million, Mutual Benefits traded 13.0 million equities valued at N2.6 million, while Stanbic IBTC transacted 11.3 million shares for N520.4 million.
CAP was the highest price gainer on Wednesday after adding 70 kobo to its share value to close at N23 per unit and was trailed by FCMB, which rose by 15 kobo to sell at N3.05 per share.
GTBank grew by 10 kobo to N32.10 per unit, Dangote Sugar also gained 10 kobo to trade at N15.50 per unit, while Caverton appreciated by 70 kobo to settle at N1.97 per share.
On the losers’ chart, Julius Berger topped the table after shedding 45 kobo to quote at N17.05 per unit and was trailed by GlaxoSmithKline, which lost 10 to trade at N5.90 per share.
FBN Holdings, Union Bank and Ecobank lost 5 kobo each to settle at N6.30 per share, N5.50 per share and N5.15 per share respectively.
At the close of business yesterday, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 8.41 points to 30,741.88 points from 30,733.47 points, while the market capitalisation rose by N4 billion to N16.068 trillion from N16.064 trillion.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka