Investors maintain calm on local equities as the NASD closed flat on Thursday

Charles Abuede

On Thursday at the NASD Over-The-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange, the equities market traded flat as the NASD benchmark index and market capitalisation stayed flat at 763.84 points and N542.95 billion respectively as investors remained calm on the Nigerian equities resulting from the market expectations from the forthcoming MPC assembly.  However, strong buying interests was witnessed in the Nigerian Exchange Group stock.

The level of trading activities remained advanced on Thursday as the total traded volume recorded an uptick by 2.25 per cent to 3.75 million from the previous day’s 3.6 million while the total value of trade exchanged rose 3.95 per cent to N81.53 million from N78.43 million as of the previous day as the number of deals declined 9.52 per cent to 38 from 42 the previous day and the number of traded stocks increased 25 per cent to 5 from 4 the previous day.

On the total trade summary for the day, the top traded stocks on the exchange on Thursday were led by the NGX Group (3.6m), Afriland Plc (0.4m), CSCS Plc (0.9m), UBN Properties (0.4m) and Friesland Wamco (0.3m) in total volume while NGX Group (N79.4 m),  CSCS Plc (N1.6m), Afriland Plc (N0.56m), Friesland Wamco (N0.48m), UBN Properties (N0.05m) led the trading chart by value.

On the gainers’ table was the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) on the back of buying interest in the stocks which appreciation in price by 3.91 per cent to close at N22.05 from N21.22 while all other stocks stayed flat.