By Adedapo Adesanya
About N20 billion was lost to profit-taking at the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange last week, which was the 28th trading week of the year.
The huge loss was recorded despite the unlisted securities market opening for only three days as a result of the public holiday observed last Monday and Tuesday for Sallah.
Business Post reports that as a result of the loss recorded by NASD investors in the week, the market capitalisation closed at N1.016 trillion compared with the preceding week’s N1.019 trillion, while the NASD Securities Index (NSI) fell by 1.71 points to close at 772.08 points in contrast to 773.79 points of the earlier week.
It was observed that two stocks were responsible for the weakening of the exchange in the three-day trading week and they were Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc, which lost 9.2 per cent to settle at N197.00 per unit compared with the previous N217.00 per unit and Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc, which dropped 4.7 per cent to N13.83 per share from N14.51 per share.
However, Capital Bancorp Plc appreciated in the week by 4.2 per cent to trade at N2.95 per share in contrast to the previous week’s N2.83 per share, while FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc grew by 2.4 per cent to N102.50 per unit from N100.10 per unit.
In the week, the value of transactions went down by 96.6 per cent to N21.4 million from N637.8 billion, the volume of trades depreciated by 91.5 per cent to 3.7 million units from 43.5 million units, while the number of deals fell by 66.3 per cent to 34 deals from 101 deals.
Capital Bancorp Plc was the most active stock by volume last week, trading 3.5 million units. FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc posted 89,475 units, Food Concepts Plc exchanged 50,000 units, CitiTrust Holdings Plc recorded 22,300 units, while CSCS Plc sold 21,640 units.
Also, Capital Bancorp Plc was the most active stock by value with N9.9 million, NDEP Plc traded N9.3 million, 11 Plc transacted N1.5 million, CSCS Plc posted N301,051, while CitiTrust Holdings Plc traded N178,650.
On a year-to-date basis, investors have traded 3.23 billion units of shares worth N22.0 billion in 1,619 deals, with the YtD return of 3.93 per cent.
