Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
It was a negative outcome for unlisted securities on the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange on Monday, May 18.
At the session, both the market capitalisation and NASD unlisted Security Index (NSI) dropped most of the gains recorded at the previous session.
Last Friday, the market rose by 0.79 percent, but yesterday, the market went down by as it shed 0.78 percent, causing the index to shrink by 5.43 points to end the day at 688.51 points from 693.94 points.
Also, the situation weakened the market capitalisation by N3.9 billion to close at N505.76 billion in contrast to N509.75 billion it finished at the preceding trading day.
Business Post reports that the contraction witnessed at the unlisted securities market yesterday was caused by loss recorded by the day’s only price decliner, Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc, an oil investment company.
Share price of the company depreciated on Monday by N22 or 7.5 percent to close at N270 per share compared with N292 per share of the previous session.
Despite the loss, there was a rise in the total volume of securities traded by investors on Monday. A total of 270,221 units were traded at the session, higher than the 19,625 units transacted at the previous session by 1,277 percent.
These came from seven deals executed during the session at the exchange and they were trades around securities belonging to NDEP Plc (four deals); Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc; FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc and VFD Group Plc (one deal each).
The total value of shares traded on Monday amounted to N12.5 million. At the previous trading day, the value of stocks stood at N1.7 million. This indicated that the transaction value increased yesterday by 644 percent.
At the close of business on Monday, ARM Life Plc closed as the company with the highest volume of shares transacted year-to-date. The underwriter has traded 7.4 billion units of its shares worth N4.6 billion from the beginning of this year till yesterday.
It was closely followed by Food Concept Plc, which has exchanged 110.0 million units worth N77 million, and Lighthouse Financial Service Plc, which has sold 48 million units of its shares worth N24 million.
Also, ARM Life Plc ended the day as the most traded equity by value (year-to-date) with 7.4 billion units of its shares traded for N4.6 billion. The day’s sole price loser, NDEP was in second position with 6.9 million units exchanged for N2.13 billion, while FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc stood in third place with 2.4 million units of its securities transacted for N292.7 million.
