The Nigerian Stock Exchange has announced the reclassification of Oando Plc from medium-priced stock to low-priced stock.

Low-priced stocks are securities that have traded below N5 per share in four out of the last six-month period.

The NSE said in a statement on Thursday that the reclassification took effect from September 5, 2019.

It said the reclassification was in compliance with Rule 15.29: Pricing methodology, rulebook of the Exchange, 2015 (dealing members’ rules).

The statement read in part, “Oando dropped below the N5 mark on April 30, 2019, and traded below N5 up until the close of business on August 30, 2019.”

The NSE said for upward or downward movement in price to occur on any low-priced stock that was priced at below N5 and listed, stockbrokers were required to trade a minimum volume of 100,000 units and tick size of one kobo.

At the end of trading on Thursday, the equities market shed N32.9bn on the back of losses recorded in 17 stocks.

Major sell-offs were witnessed in Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, MTN Nigeria Communications Plc and Lafarge Africa Plc.

The All Share Index shed 17 basis points to close at 27,273.14bps as the year-to-date loss declined to -13.2 per cent while the market capitalisation decreased by N32.9bn to N13.258tn from N13.291tn on Wednesday.

Volume and value traded fell by 46.8 per cent and 24.8 per cent to 133.344 million units and N2.399bn, respectively.

Analysts at Afrinvest Securities Limited said they expected the bearish trend to persist, although opportunities for bargain hunting existed.