The Nigerian stock market closed the first full week of 2026 on a positive note, extending its upward trend to its sixth consecutive week, with market capitalization exceeding the ₦100trn mark for the first time, driven by broad-based bullishness across all sectors. Over the week, the NGX All-Share Index (ASI) gained 3.72% to settle at 162,298.08 points, up from 156,492.36 points in the preceding week. Correspondingly, total market capitalization expanded by 3.84% week-on-week to ₦103.88 trillion, compared with ₦99.94 trillion in prior week.
Sectoral performance was broadly positive, with all five major sectors closing in the green and market breadth remaining strong. 84 equities advanced, led by notable gainers such as Multiverse, May & Baker, Eunisell, Fidson, and Eterna, alongside gains in large caps including Seplat, MTNN, GTCO, Dangote Cement, Zenith Bank, and Transcorp. Meanwhile, 22 stocks declined, with losses driven mainly by Ikeja Hotel, Conoil, FirstHoldCo, Honeywell Flour, and AccessCorp. Overall sentiment reflected sustained buying interest across sectors despite pockets of profit-taking.
A total turnover of 4.16 billion shares worth ₦94.03 billion in 248,254 deals was traded this week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 7.82 billion shares valued at ₦134.47 billion that exchanged hands last week in 150,799 deals. The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 2.65 billion shares valued at ₦35.96 billion traded in 93,706 deals; thus contributing 63.67% and 38.24% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The Services industry followed with 369.96 million shares worth ₦3.38 billion in 16,521 deals. Third place was the ICT Industry, with a turnover of 297.94 million shares worth ₦5.73 billion in 21,548 deals.
Trading in the top three equities, namely UNIVERSAL INSURANCE PLC, LINKAGE ASSURANCE PLC and ACCESS HOLDINGS PLC (measured by volume), accounted for 1.26 billion shares worth ₦5.06 billion in 13,819 deals, contributing 30.28% and 5.38% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
Overall, eighty-four (84) equities appreciated in price during the week, higher than seventy-three (73) equities in the previous week. Twenty-two (22) equities depreciated in price, lower than twenty-three (23) equities in the previous week, while forty-two (42) equities remained unchanged, lower than fifty-one (51) recorded in the previous week.
