SAT SEPT 12 2026-theGBJournal| Nigeria’s equities market ended the week lower, extending a broad retreat across most sectors as heavy losses in major industrial and banking stocks outweighed gains in oil and gas names.
The NGX All-Share Index fell 1.60% over the week to 243,052.74 points, while total market capitalisation declined 1.24% to N157.59 trillion.
The retreat reduced the market’s year-to-date gain to 56.19%, from 58.72% a week earlier.
The decline was concentrated in several large-cap stocks. BUACEMENT was the biggest drag among the major names, falling 10.00% for the week, while FIRSTHOLDCO dropped 9.30% and FCMB lost 7.56%.
The weakness in those stocks more than offset gains in SEPLAT, which rose 10.00%, ELLAHLAKES, up 13.33%, and WEMABANK, which gained 2.70%.
At the sector level, the sell-off was broad. The Insurance index fell 5.52%, the steepest decline, followed by Banking at 4.07%, Industrial Goods at 3.36% and Consumer Goods at 2.55%.
Oil and Gas was the only major sector index to advance, gaining 2.83%, underscoring the relative strength of energy stocks during the week.
Five other indices also closed higher: NGX AFR Div Yield rose 0.71%, NGXMERI Value gained 0.79%, NGX Sovereign Bond advanced 0.14%, while the NGX Commodity index increased 2.19%.
Friday’s session provided a modest recovery, with the ASI and market capitalisation each gaining 0.28%.
Gains in ACCESSCORP, up 3.57%, DANGSUGAR, up 2.00%, and ZENITHBANK, up 0.64%, outweighed declines in STANBIC, down 1.58%, MTNN, down 0.23%, and GTCO, down 0.08%.
The late-week rebound, however, came on significantly thinner trading. Volume fell 60.48% to 552.89 million shares, while transaction value declined 4.99% to N25.79 billion.
STERLINGNG accounted for the largest volume, with 98.78 million shares traded, while ARADEL led by value with N5.15 billion worth of transactions.
For the full week, investors traded 3.647 billion shares worth N130.151 billion in 244,777 deals, compared with 4.360 billion shares valued at N210.331 billion in 223,284 deals the previous week.
The figures point to a sharp contraction in turnover value despite a higher number of transactions, suggesting more subdued participation and lower-value trading.
Market breadth remained positive at 1.77x, indicating that advancers outnumbered decliners despite the fall in the benchmark index.
ABBEYBANK was the week’s strongest gainer, rising 10.00%, while JOHNHOLT was the biggest decliner, also falling 10.00%.
Trading remained highly concentrated in a handful of stocks.
Fortis Global Insurance, Mutual Benefits Assurance and Sterling Financial Holdings accounted for 1.544 billion shares, or 42.33% of total equity volume, although their combined value of N4.067 billion represented only 3.12% of turnover value.
The week’s performance suggests that the market’s underlying breadth was more resilient than the headline index indicated, but losses in heavily weighted stocks continued to exert pressure on the benchmark.
The simultaneous weakness across banking, insurance and industrial stocks also points to a broader risk-off tone, with investors favouring selected energy and individual mid-cap opportunities rather than taking broad positions across the market.
Meanwhile, the NASD OTC market closed today’s session in the red, as the NASD Security Index (NSI) depreciated by 1.20% to 4,472.45 points.
Market capitalisation also declined by 1.20% to N2.68 trillion, while the market’s year-to-date (YTD) return moderated to 26.21% from 27.74% in the previous session.
Trading activity was mixed during the session, with traded volume increasing by 62.98% to 615,427 units, while transaction value fell by 57.69% to N21.59 million.
A total of 28 trades were executed, representing a 21.74% increase from the previous session.
On the performance chart, SDFCWAMCO (+1.27%) was the only gainer in today’s session, while SDCSCSPLC (-7.24%) emerged as the session’s top loser.
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