By Adedapo Adesanya
The new week at the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange opened in the bearish territory with a marginal 0.03 per cent depreciation.
The unlisted securities market recorded the loss on Monday despite the positive price movement in the shares of Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Group Plc, one of the bellwhethers.
The decline suffered by unlisted stocks on bourse reduced the market capitalisation by N170 million to N530.18 billion from N530.35 billion.
It also depleted the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) by 0.24 points to finish the day at 745.88 points as against 746.12 points it recorded at the previous session.
NGX Group appreciated during the session by 5 kobo or 0.26 per cent to settle at N19.33 per unit compared with the preceding session’s N19.28 per unit.
A total of 909,339 units of securities worth N18.5 million exchanged hands in 30 deals on Monday in contrast to the 1.7 million units of securities worth N33.3 million transacted the previous session in 32 deals.
This indicated that the volume of shares traded by investors yesterday declined by 47.1 per cent, while the value of the stocks decreased by 44.5 per cent, with the number of deals going down by 6.3 per cent.
At the close of transactions, NGX Group was the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 271.8 million units of its shares worth N6.1 billion. Swap Technologies & Telecomms Plc was in second place with 46.6 million units worth N41.0 million, while CSCS Plc held the third position with 31. 4 million units of its shares worth N493.5 million.
Also, NGX Group ended the trading day as the most active stock by value (year-to-year) with the sale of 271.8 million units of its securities valued at N6.1 billion. It was followed by Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc which has transacted 2.9 million units of its securities valued at N900.6 million, and FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria, which has exchanged 5.9 million units valued at 751.8 million.
