NASD Index Drops 0.18% in Week 42 After Aradel Exit

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Unlisted Security Index (USI) of the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange decreased by 0.18 per cent or 5.45 basis points in the 42nd trading week of 2024, closing at 2,983.55 basis points, in contrast to Week 41’s 2,989.00 points.

Earlier in the week, Aradel Holdings Plc, which had been the market bellwether for most of the year, exited to seek greener pastures on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited, shrinking the value of the platform by N3.05 trillion to N1.050 trillion from the N4.101 trillion quoted in the preceding week.

Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc ended as the worst-performing stock after it shed 9.5 per cent to end at 19 Kobo per share compared with the previous week’s 21 Kobo per share.

Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc went down by 4.5 per cent to N22.00 per unit from N23.04 per unit, Nipco Plc declined by 4.3 per cent to N89.00 per share from N93.00 per share, Food Concepts Plc crashed by 2.2 per cent to N1.75 per unit from N1.79 per unit, and Afriland Properties Plc depreciated by 0.8 per cent to end at N18.25 per share versus the preceding week’s N18.40 per share.

On the flip side, Acorn Petroleum Plc gained 32.5 per cent to settle at N2.65 per unit compared with the previous N2.00 per unit, Geo-Fluids grew by 16.2 per cent to N4.51 per share from N3.88 per share, Mixta Real Estate Plc expanded by 8.3 per cent to N1.95 per unit from N1.80 per unit, UBN Property Plc increased by 1.2 per cent to N1.67 per share from N1.65 per share, and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc appreciated by 0.02 per cent to N45.00 per unit from N44.99 per unit.

In the week, the volume of transactions went down by 97.9 per cent to 14.9 million units from 693.2 million units, the value of trades declined by 99.8 per cent to N0.8 billion from N42.60 billion, and the number of deals depreciated by 89.1 per cent to 144 deals from 1,311 deals in the previous week.

The busiest equity for the five-day trading week by value was Geo-Fluids Plc with N44 million, CSCS Plc followed with N17 million, Nipco Plc recorded N9 million, Acorn Plc posted N7 million, and Citi Trust Holdings Plc traded N7 million.

But by volume, Geo-Fluids Plc led with 10.6 million units, trailed by Acorn Petroleum Plc with 2.6 million units,  CSCS Plc exchanged 0.763 million units, Citi Trust Holdings Plc transacted 0.195 million units, and Afriland Plc traded 0.124 million units.