The Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc, which is the clearing house for the Nigerian capital market will settle and clear N11.4 trillion Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) bonds at the over the counter (OTC) market this year.

This projection shows 54 per cent increase over the N7.4 trillion FGN Bonds settled and cleared in 2012. Although the FGN bonds have not actively traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the CSCS has been settling and clearing those transactions at the OTC market.

However, retail trading of FGN, state and corporate bonds commenced on the NSE at the beginning of this month.

And projections by CSCS for the current year obtained by THISDAY, showed that the clearing house is expecting to settle and clear N11.7 trillion FGN bonds.

It also envisaging to clear and settle 93 billion shares valued at N703 billion in 2013, compared with 89.2 billion shares, which amounted to N658.7 billion in 2012.

Market analysts said the 93 billion shares projection would be achieved given the performance of the market so far. In the first two months, for instance, 22.119 billion shares valued at N166 billion were cleared and settled.

The two months transactions translate to an average of 11 billion shares amounting to an average of N83 billion a month. It is believed that if this momentum is sustained, the market would end with 132 billion shares value at about N996 billion, which is above the projected 93 billion shares valued at N703 billion.

A breakdown of performance of the market in the first two months showed that the highest amount was invested in February, which was N99.884 billion exchanged in 144,306 deals. The month of January accounted for N66.287 billion invested in 9.003 billion shares in 106,823 deals.

A further analysis of the trading activities indicated that the second week of February recorded the highest value of trading as investors staked N24.692 billion on 3.572 billion shares in 39,321 deals.

The third week of February followed, accounting for N23.177 billion invested in 4.249 billion shares in 39,391 deals, investors invested N22.815 billion in 2.482 deals.

Investors staked N22.2 billion on 2.813 billion shares in 33,123 deals in the first week of February, while the third week of January recorded N21.636 billion invested in 3.259 billion shares in 34,651 deals.

The last week of January accounted for N19.152 billion invested in 2.612 billion shares in 27,186 deals, just as second and first weeks recorded N16.99 billion and N8.509 billion invested in 2.16 billion shares and 973 million shares in 31,241 deals and 13,745 deals respectively.

Source: Thisday (By Goddy Egene)