Unlisted Securities Market Opens Week in Bears Territory

By Adedapo Adesanya

The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange opened the new week in the negative territory with a 038 per cent decline on Monday.

The loss followed the negative price movements in three securities – FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc, Food Concepts Plc and Nigerian Exchange Group Plc.

This weakened the market capitalisation of the bourse to fall yesterday by N2.41 billion to close at N636.34 in contrast to N638.75 billion it quoted last Friday.

Also, the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) went down during the session by 2.78 basis points to end the day at 732.12 points as against 734.90 points it recorded at the previous session.

At the unlisted securities market on Monday, the share price of Friesland Plc declined by N1.25 or 1.0 per cent to close at N121.52 per unit compared with the previous N122.27 per unit.

NGX Group Plc depreciated by 43 kobo or 2.7 per cent to close at N16.02 per unit versus N16.45 per unit of the last trading session, while Food Concepts Plc fell by 6 kobo or 7.5 per cent to sell at 80 kobo per share compared to 86 kobo per share of the preceding session.

At the market yesterday, the volume of securities witnessed a 25.6 per cent decline as investors exchanged 2.2 million units compared with the 2.9 million units transacted by market participants at the previous session.

However, the value of shares traded during the session increased by 9.7 per cent to N35.7 million from N32.6 million, while the number of deals went down by 25.9 per cent to 20 deals from 22 deals.

At the close of transactions, Geo Fluids Plc remained the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with the sale of 1.0 billion units of its shares for N700.1 billion, followed by NGX Group Plc with 419.9 million shares traded for N8.7 billion, and Food Concepts Plc with 295.2 million units worth N386.1 million.

But the most active stock by value (year-to-date) remained NGX Group Plc with 419.9 million units valued at N8.7 billion. The second spot was occupied by VFD Group Plc for trading 6.6 million units of its securities worth N2.2 billion, while Friesland has transacted 8.2 million units valued at N1.0 billion.