Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
It was another bad week for investors at the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange as the exchange depreciated by 2.24 per cent at the 7th trading week of the year.
In the five-day trading week, the benchmark index went down by 16.82 points to close the week at 734.62 points as against the 751.43 points it closed the previous week.
In addition, the portfolios of NASD investors shrank by N14.23 billion, leaving the market capitalisation at N622.06 billion compared with N636.29 billion it finished a week earlier.
Business Post reports that the bearish outcome at the market occurred on the back of losses recorded by two market bellwethers led by the Friesland Campina WAMCO Nigeria Plc, which declined by 10.00 per cent to N121.50 per share from N135.00 per share of the preceding week.
Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc depreciated in the week by 2.6 per cent to settle at N229.00 per unit in contrast to N235.00 per unit it ended the previous week.
The market already recorded a price gainer and this was NASD Plc, which grew by 0.8 per cent to trade at N8.50 per unit in contrast to the previous close of N8.43 per unit.
On the activity chart, there was an 80.3 per cent decrease in the total value of transactions to N39.4 million from N200.0 million, while the volume of trades rose by 64.4 per cent to 4.3 million units from 2.6 million units, with the number of deals declining by 31.8 per cent to 45 deals from 66 deals posted at the preceding week.
At the close of business for the week, NASD Plc was the most traded securities by volume with 2.9 million units, followed by Food Concepts Plc with 1.0 million units. Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc traded 431,790 units, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc exchanged 28,128 units, while Nipco Plc transacted 6,708 units.
On the flip side, NASD Plc was also the most active stock by value in the week with the sale of securities worth N25.0 million. CSCS Plc followed with N7.9 million, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc traded N4.8 million, Food Concepts Plc recorded N810,810, while NDEP Plc traded N459,350.
In the week, the NASD OTC Securities Exchange closed with a year-to-date (YTD) loss of 1.1 per cent, while investors have traded in the year a total of 668.8 million units of shares worth N14.5 billion in 311 deals.
