The Nigerian equities market reached a significant milestone last week as the NGX All-Share Index (ASI) crossed the 100,000-point mark for the first time since July 2024. Closing at 101,129.09 points, the index rose 1.76% week-on-week (WoW), signaling heightened investor confidence fueled by festive season optimism and favorable macroeconomic conditions. Market capitalization also increased by N1.06 trillion, reaching N61.3 trillion with a year-to-date return of 35.25%, cementing its status as the best-performing index of 2024.
Despite the bullish market trend, trading activity showed mixed results. The volume of traded shares declined by 10.32% to 2.44 billion units, while transaction values soared 78.84% to N88.81 billion across 48,216 deals. The NGX Insurance and Banking indices led sectoral performance, gaining 8.83% and 3.23% WoW, respectively. Meanwhile, profit-taking activities slightly dragged the NGX Industrial Goods index down by 0.83%. Top stock performers included MRS Oil Plc (+36.4%) and Honeywell Flour (+31.5%), while John Holt Plc led the laggards with an 18.7% decline.
Analysts expect the bullish momentum to persist into the year’s final week, driven by year-end portfolio rebalancing and strong macroeconomic indicators. According to Cowry Research, strategic positioning will likely dominate trading decisions, ensuring a strong finish to what has been a record-breaking year for Nigeria’s equities market.