THUR JAN 22 2026-theGBJournal| Nigeria stocks closed lower on Thursday after heavy losses and profit taking in market big names, just as the local currency, the naira ascended against the U.S dollar which fell elsewhere as concern about Greenland takeover by the United States eased.
Losses in WAPCO (-5.1%), ZENITHBANK (-3.4%), and TRANSCORP (-3.0%) drove the All-Share Index down 0.5% to 165,397.37 points. Market capitalization fell also by 0.52% to N51.63 trillion.
As a result, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns moderated to +6.3%.
The total volume of trades declined by 6.6% to 768.26 million units, valued at N21.19 billion, and exchanged in 46,481 deals.
ACCESSCORP was the most traded stock by volume, with 54.28 million units traded, while GEREGU was the most traded stock by value, with N2.78 billion traded.
Sectoral performance was broadly negative, as the Insurance (-1.4%), Consumer Goods (-1.3%), Banking (-1.0%), Industrial Goods (-0.7%) and Oil & Gas (-0.2%) indices closed lower.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.9x), as 39 tickers lost relative to 36 gainers.
OMATEK (-9.4%) and INTENEGINS (-6.1%) led the laggards, while UHOMREIT (+10.0%) and INFINITY (+10.0%) posted the most significant gains of the day.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian currency, the Naira rose against the U.S dollar at the official FX market, edging up by 0.6% to N1,422.50/US$, even as the dollar relapsed slightly against major world currencies ahead of key economic date and as President Trump dropped tariff threats and ruled out seizing Greenland by force.
The naira gain comes after a 0.8% fall to N1,430.63/US$ on Wednesday.
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