TUES OCT 06 2026-theGBJournal| The Nigerian Exchange equity market lost ground on Monday, as the NGX All-Share Index (ASI) declined by 0.06% to close at 250,667.86 points, while market capitalisation fell by 0.06% w/w to settle at N162.75 trillion.
This brought the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns at -0.2% and +61.1%, respectively.
The negative sentiment was driven by losses in NESTLE (−5.17%), GTCO (−0.45%), UBA (−0.66%) and TRANSCORP (-0.7%), which outweighed gains recorded in MTNN (+0.24%), ZENITHBANK (+0.67%) and DANGSUGAR (+2.94%).
Market activity was strong, as total volume traded grew by 59.27% to 875.28 million units and value traded grew by 51.40% to N40.88 billion, while the number of deals rose by 1.17% to 53,887.
ACCESSCORP (-0.16%) led the volume chart with 440.65mn units traded, while ARADEL (+0.00%) topped the value chart with transactions worth N5.11 billion.
Market breadth was negative at 0.73x, reflecting higher number of decliners relative to advancers.
ABCTRANS (-9.5%) and AFRIPRUD (-7.3%) led the laggards, while SOVRENINS (+10.0%) and FTNCOCOA (+10.0%) posted the most significant gains of the day.
Similarly, the NASD OTC market opened the week on a negative note, as the NASD Security Index (NSI) fell by 1.37% to 4,400.62 points.
Market capitalisation also fell by 1.12% to N2.64 trillion, while the market’s year-to-date (YTD) return fell to 24.18% from 25.91% in the previous session.
Market activity weakened as total volume traded declined by 1.58% to 1.25 million units, while total value traded grew by 28.21% to N12.14 million.
SDIGIPLC led the decliners’ table, contracting 3.77%, with no advancers recorded in today’s session.
At the currency market, the naira depreciated against the U.S. dollar, with the USD/NGN pair rising by 0.16% to close at N1,331.68/$, coming off a relatively stable week last week.
In the parallel market, the Naira strengthened to approximately N1,360/US$1 on Friday from N1,380/US$1 previously.
Consequently, the premium of the parallel-market rate over the NFEM rate narrowed significantly to N29.90/US$1, from N50.49/US$1 in the prior week, reducing the spread from 3.8% to 2.2%.
The narrowing premium points to improved convergence between the official and parallel FX markets and relatively contained near-term FX pressures.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s external reserves increased by 0.05% to $54.95 billion as of 2 October 2026, extending the recent improvement in the country’s reserve position.
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