SAT AUG 08 2026-theGBJournal| Nigeria’s equities market staged a modest recovery in the first week of August, with market capitalisation climbing to N158.51 trillion from N158.33 trillion at the end of first week of trade in August, as gains in major banking and consumer stocks helped the benchmark index close higher.
The NGX All-Share Index advanced 0.12% week-on-week to 245,573.60 points, lifting the market’s year-to-date return to 57.81%, from 57.62% a week earlier.
Market capitalisation rose by the same margin to N158.51 trillion.
The recovery was supported by gains in First HoldCo, which surged 12.23%, alongside AccessCorp (+2.47%), Zenith Bank (+1.98%), MTNN (+0.96%) and UBA (+0.90%).
The advances outweighed declines in Cadbury (-9.92%), Dangote Sugar (-7.24%), Oando (-2.32%) and GTCO (-1.54%).
The market’s performance strengthened into Friday, when the ASI and market capitalisation each gained 0.15%, driven by renewed buying interest in First HoldCo (+3.36%), AccessCorp (+3.26%) and UBA (+3.22%).
The gains offset losses in Wema Bank (-3.85%), Oando (-1.24%) and NEM (-2.74%).
Trading activity also picked up sharply in Friday’s session.
Volume jumped 185.55% to 1.52 billion shares, while traded value rose 30.27% to N26.65 billion.
Cutix led the volume chart with 217.91 million shares traded, while Sovereign Trust Insurance recorded the highest transaction value at N4.67 billion.
Market breadth remained weak at 0.72x, signalling that declining stocks outnumbered gainers. UPDC led the gainers, rising 9.23%, while Red Star Express was the biggest decliner, falling 10%.
Meanwhile, NASD OTC market extended gains, ending the week higher, with the NASD Security Index gaining 5.10% to 4,657.59 points as of Thursday, August 6.
Market capitalisation on the platform rose 5.10% to N2.79 trillion, while its year-to-date return improved to 31.43%, from 25.06% in the previous week.
Trading activity strengthened during the week, with total volume reaching 2.89 million units and transaction value rising to N99.16 million.
A total of 62 trades were executed during the period.
The contrasting pace of gains across the two markets suggests that while investor sentiment improved at the start of August, the recovery in listed equities remained selective rather than broad-based.
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