..Index Falls 0.14% Amid Cautious Investor Sentiment
Nigeria’s equities market closed the week lower as cautious sentiment and broad profit-taking pressured the benchmark index, even as trading activity increased significantly.
The NGX All-Share Index slipped 0.14 per cent to 143,520.53 points, compared with 143,722.62 in the previous week. Total market capitalisation declined to ₦91.286 trillion, down from ₦91.415 trillion, according to data released by the Nigerian Exchange.
The softening performance came as investors “lost about ₦129 billion this week,” the News Agency of Nigeria reported, reflecting waning risk appetite after a period of strong gains.
Despite the overall decline, several sector indices ended the week in positive territory. The NGX CG, Premium, Banking, Pension, AFR Dividend Yield, AFR Bank Value, MERI Growth, MERI Value, Lotus II, Growth and Sovereign Bond indices posted gains ranging from 0.01 per cent to 0.94 per cent, signalling selective interest in defensive and value-oriented counters.
Market activity strengthened notably. Turnover rose to 4.14 billion shares valued at ₦115.89 billion across 102,351 deals, up from 2.67 billion shares worth ₦106.26 billion the previous week.
The Financial Services sector continued to dominate trading, accounting for 81.1 per cent of total volume and 70.05 per cent of total value, with 3.36 billion shares worth ₦81.17 billion traded in 43,392 deals. The Services and Consumer Goods industries followed with 148.27 million shares and 143.64 million shares respectively.
Cornerstone Insurance, GTCO and Access Holdings remained the most actively traded stocks, jointly contributing 48.43 per cent of total turnover volume and 41.02 per cent of total value.
Market breadth improved slightly, with 38 gainers, compared with 20 in the previous week, while 36 equities declined, down from 60 earlier. Seventy-three stocks were unchanged.
Top performers included Ikeja Hotel, NCR Nigeria, UACN, CWG and Veritas Kapital, which posted gains between ₦1.90 and ₦13.55. The worst performers were Meyer, Sunu Assurances, UPDC, Tantalizer and Abbey Mortgage Bank, which recorded losses of between 26 kobo and ₦3.05.
The NGX also disclosed the listing of 243,424 additional units of the Chapel Hill Denham Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund arising from its Q3 2025 scrip dividend distribution, bringing total units to 1,056,257,953.
The Exchange separately confirmed an extension of VFD Group’s Rights Issue, following approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Trading on the rights will now close on Friday, December 26.
