By Adedapo Adesanya
The last trading session of this week on the floor of the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange ended on a positive note on Friday.
Business Post reports that the unlisted securities market closed higher by 0.14 per cent yesterday as a result of the improvement in the share price of a market bellwether, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc.
It was observed that the decision of investors to lap up stocks, especially of the milk-producing brand, as the Yuletide approaches, raised its value higher by 65 Kobo during the session to N65.90 per unit from the previous day’s N65.25 per unit.
This positive outcome spurred the market capitalisation to rise by N1.27 billion to wrap the day at N930.74 billion from the previous session’s value of N929.47 billion.
Equally, as a result of this, the NASD unlisted securities index (NSI) added 0.96 points to close at 708.32 points compared with Thursday’s value of 707.36 points.
On Friday, the trading volume rose by 0.5 per cent as a total of 5.08 million units of shares exchanged hands compared with 5.05 units of shares transacted on Thursday.
At the close of business, the trading value jumped by 12.4 per cent to N9.2 million from the previous session’s N8.2 million, while the number of deals stood at 14 deal, just as it was in the previous session.
AG Mortgage Bank Plc remained the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis, with the sale of 2.3 billion units worth N1.2 billion. Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc followed with 688.1 million units worth N14.3 billion, while Lighthouse Financial Services Plc was in third place with 224.7 million units valued at N112.3 million.
CSCS Plc also maintained its spot as the most traded stock by value on a year-to-date basis with 688.1 million units worth N14.3 billion, trailed by VFD Group Plc with 29.1 million units valued at N7.7 billion, and FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc was in third place with 18.1 million units valued at N2.0 billion.