By Boluwatife Oshadiya
Key Points
- Nigerian equities investors lost ₦1.92 trillion in one trading session
- NGX All-Share Index declined by 1.23% to 239,734.61 points
- Heavy sell-offs in BUACEMENT, DANGCEM, WAPCO and ZENITHBANK dragged the market lower
- Industrial and Banking sectors recorded the steepest declines
- Analysts expect bargain hunting and portfolio rebalancing to support Friday’s session
Main Story
The Nigerian stock market closed sharply lower on Thursday as sustained profit-taking activities in major blue-chip stocks wiped off ₦1.92 trillion from investors’ wealth. Trading data from the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) showed that the All-Share Index (ASI) fell by 1.23 percent to close at 239,734.61 basis points, reversing part of the market’s recent bullish momentum.
The decline also dragged the market capitalisation lower to ₦153.86 trillion, while the market’s year-to-date return eased to 54.06 percent.
Market analysts attributed the downturn to aggressive sell pressure on highly capitalised stocks that had posted significant gains in recent sessions, particularly within the industrial and banking sectors.
Among the biggest laggards were BUACEMENT, which shed 6.51 percent, DANGCEM with a 4.89 percent decline, WAPCO which dropped 5.07 percent, and ZENITHBANK, which declined by 3.10 percent.
Despite the broad market decline, trading breadth remained positive at 1.4x as 41 gainers outperformed 30 losers.
Top-performing stocks for the session included CAP, FTNCOCOA, ZICHIS, MEYER, and BERGER.
On the losers’ chart, UPL, REDSTAREX, SKYAVN, CILEASING, and CONHALLPLC recorded notable declines.
Sectoral performance closed mixed, with the Insurance Index rising by 1.51 percent, while Oil and Gas gained 0.39 percent. The Commodity Index also appreciated by 0.26 percent, while Consumer Goods advanced slightly by 0.10 percent.
However, the Industrial Index plunged by 5.45 percent, making it the worst-performing sector for the day, while the Banking Index fell by 1.11 percent amid sell-offs in tier-one banking stocks.
Trading activity remained largely positive as market volume increased by 29.34 percent to 1.83 billion shares. Turnover also rose by 21.44 percent to ₦72.17 billion, although the number of deals declined by 5.45 percent to 81,131 transactions.
What’s Being Said
Stockbrokers and market analysts said the correction reflects investors locking in profits after weeks of sustained rallies across several fundamentally strong counters.
Analysts also noted that the Nigerian equities market has remained one of the best-performing frontier markets in 2026, supported by banking sector recapitalisation activities, foreign portfolio inflows, and improving investor sentiment following macroeconomic reforms.
What’s Next
Market participants expect renewed bargain hunting in Friday’s trading session as investors reposition portfolios and take advantage of lower entry prices in fundamentally strong stocks.
Analysts believe market sentiment may remain cautiously optimistic in the near term, especially if institutional demand returns to major banking and industrial counters.
