Onome Amuge
The Nigerian equities market has extended its bullish run for a tenth consecutive week, fueled by a wave of robust H1 2025 earnings reports, resilient corporate fundamentals, and attractive dividend declarations. Investor sentiment remains decidedly buoyant across key sectors, setting a strong performance trajectory for the remainder of the year.
In the just-concluded week, the NGX All-Share Index (ASI) rose 5.07 per cent week-on-week (w/w), closing at a new historic high of 141,263.05 points. This upward momentum translated into significant gains for investors, with the market capitalisation of listed equities advancing by 5.08 per cent w/w to N89.37 trillion, representing a N4.32 trillion in market gains. Consequently, the year-to-date (YtD) return has expanded to 37.25 per cent, solidifying the Nigerian bourse’s position as one of Africa’s top-performing equity markets in 2025.
Market breadth closed positive at 2.77x, with 86 stocks recording gains against 31 decliners, underscoring broad-based investor participation. Activity levels also saw a marked improvement, with total volume and value traded increasing by 31.6 per cent and 33.8 per cent w/w to 4.85 billion shares and N149.75 billion, respectively. The number of trades concurrently rose by 26.4 per cent to 174,265 deals, reflecting renewed investor interest and confidence across the board.
Sector performance was broadly positive, with four of the six major sector indices posting gains. The NGX Industrial Goods Index led the charge, rising by 10.12 per cent w/w. This increase was primarily driven by strong buy-side interest in bellwether stocks such as DANGOTE CEMENT, BUA CEMENT, LAFARGE AFRICA, CAP, JULIUS BERGER, and UPDC.
The Banking Index followed closely with a 3.49 per cent w/w gain, spurred by positive sentiment in major players like UBA, WEMABANK, ZENITHBANK, and FIDELITYBANK, as investors priced in expectations of healthy H1 results and interim dividend declarations. The Consumer Goods Index also saw a respectable 2.72 per cent rise, on the back of rallies in DANGOTE SUGAR, NASCON, CADBURY, GUINNESS, and UACN.
Conversely, the Insurance (-1.22%) and Oil & Gas (-0.48%) sectors closed negative, dragged down by declines in stocks such as LASACO, GUINEA INSURANCE, SUNU ASSURANCE, ETERNA, and OANDO.
Individual stock performance highlighted remarkable gains, with UACN emerging as the best-performing stock of the week with a 115.9 per cent return. Other top performers included ACADEMY (78.3%), ABCTRANS (65.8%), EUNISELL (62.2%), and LAFARGE AFRICA (61.1%). On the flip side, LEGEND INTERNET (-20.0%), UPL (-16.3%), LASACO (-15.6%), GUINEA INSURANCE (-14.65%), and NNFM (-13.8%) topped the laggards’ chart.
Looking ahead, analysts at Cowry Research anticipate the bullish sentiment to persist in the near term. They point to the undervaluation of the Nigerian market relative to its African peers, improving macroeconomic fundamentals, and the strong expectation of interim dividend declarations by Tier-1 banks as key drivers. With major banks yet to fully release their H1 results, Cowry Research expects investor positioning to intensify in the coming sessions. They advise investors to tilt their portfolios towards fundamentally strong stocks with consistent earnings power and potential for dividend income, particularly within the banking, cement, and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sectors.
