Unlisted Securities Market Slides Third Straight Day

By Adedapo Adesanya

Depreciation in the stock price of NASD Plc for yet another session saw the bear tighten their grip on the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange for the third straight session on Wednesday, December 22.

NASD Plc closed at N20.74 per share yesterday, 11.1 per cent or N2.30 lower than the previous session’s N23.04 per share and this weakened the unlisted securities market by 0.11 per cent.

As a result, the market capitalisation of the exchange lost N680 million to close at N608.76 billion in contrast to N609.44 billion it closed at the previous session.

This also affected the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI), which depreciated by 0.23 points to end the day at 736.83 points as against 737.06 points it recorded at the previous session.

Despite the loss, the market recorded a price gainer at the midweek session and this was UBN Property Plc, which grew by 6 kobo or 5.7 per cent to trade at N1.05 per unit compared with 99 kobo per unit it closed on Tuesday.

Business Post reports that there was a drop in the volume of securities traded at the bourse by investors on Wednesday by 98.4 per cent as a total of 160,564 units exchanged hands compared with the 10.1 million units transacted on Tuesday.

Equally, the value of shares traded by market participants reduced by 99.7 per cent to N779,637.80 from the preceding day’s N233.5 million, while the number of deals increased by 10.00 per cent to 11 deals from 10 deals of the previous day.

Food Concepts Plc finished the session as the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) for trading 11.4 billion units for N14.4 billion, Lighthouse Financial Services Plc has traded 1.1 billion units for N546.2 million, while Geo Fluids Plc has exchanged 1.0 billion units worth N700.1 million.

Also, Food Concepts Plc ended the day as the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis for selling 11.4 billion units worth N14.4 billion, Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Group Plc trailed with 456.5 million units valued at N9.2 billion, while VFD Group Plc has transacted 10.4 million units worth N3.5 billion.