Stocks on NASD Gain N6.63bn in Week 44

By Adedapo Adesanya

It was a week of smiles for investors at the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) as they raked in N6.63 billion in value following the rise in the market capitalisation to N536.39 billion in week 44 compared with N529.76 billion it closed in week 43.

The 44th trading week of the year closed 0.6 per cent as a result of bargain-hunting at the market, which pushed the NASD Security Index up by 9.03 points to close the week at 730.22 points as against 721.19 points of the preceding week.

During the week, bellwether stock, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc, was the sole price riser as the milk producer, which currently with a market capitalisation of N136.65 billion, added N14.68 or 11.72 per cent to its value to close at N139.97 per share in contrast to N125.29 per share it closed a week earlier.

On the other hand, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc, which currently has a market capitalisation of N70.05 billion, was the only price decliner of the week as its share value went down by N1.54 or 9.9 per cent to close at N14.01 per unit versus N15.55 per unit it ended the preceding week.

On the activity chart, there was a 60 per cent decrease in the total value of securities traded by investors during the week. Stocks worth N6.0 million were transacted compared with N15.0 million of the previous week.

Similarly, the volume of stocks traded in the week reduced by 0.34 per cent to 216,058.00 units from 216,793.00 units traded in the previous week.

However, there was a marginal rise in the number of deals executed on the NASD trading platform as this jumped by 8.3 per cent to 13 deals from 12 deals of the earlier week.

On a year-to-date basis, the total transactions on the exchange have been 7,873,374,037 units valued at N11.7 billion carried out in 1302 deals.

Last week, CSCS Plc ranked top among the five most traded securities by volume with 180,000 units. Others were FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc (24,245 units), UBN Properties Plc (9,500 units), Afriland Properties Plc (2,000 units) and Niger Delta Exploration and Production Plc (313 units).

In terms of the top traded securities by value, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc topped the chart with N3.4 million. CSCS followed with N2.5 million, NDEP Plc with N103,290, UBN Properties Plc trading N13,110 and Afriland Properties Plc with N3,000.