…Longest bullish streak since January 2024
The stock market achieved a remarkable feat at the beginning of this week, closing with record equities value of N80.143 trillion on Monday.
The Nigerian stock market return this year has reached 23.09 percent. This month alone, the market has risen by 5.59 percent.
As a result, some of the world’s savviest investors are quietly shifting their attention back to Nigeria due to high returns and brighter prospects of the market.
Analysts say the positive sentiment in the stock market indicates broad-based investor participation and growing confidence in the Nigerian equity market.
Improved macroeconomic sentiment, driven by faster-than-expected GDP growth, a downward trend in inflation, and early signs of currency stability, further set the stage for renewed investor confidence in equities.
Read also: NGX records longest bullish streak since January 2024
“At N80 trillion, Nigeria’s stock market capitalisation as a percentage of GDP has risen to 25 percent. The figure pales in comparison to countries like South Africa, Vietnam, and India,” said Abdulrauf Bello, portfolio manager at CowryWise.
“However, the NGX’s current figure ( that is 25 percent) is double the figure in 2020 (13 percent),” he noted.
David Adonri, vice chairman at Equity Capital Solution Limited, highlighted that “the equities market appreciated by 16.6 percent in the first half (H1) of 2025, with the second quarter (Q2) contributing 13.6 percent. Stabilising interest and exchange rates have renewed investor appetite, particularly among foreign portfolio investors.”
In their recent mid-year outlook entitled, ‘Charting the Sustainability Path,’ CardinalStone Research analysts noted that increasing Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPI) participation in Nigerian stocks is buoyed by greater FX clarity and improved capital repatriation mechanisms.
“We maintain our reliance on the Grinold-Kroner model to estimate the equity returns for 2025. The model states that the expected return of a stock is its dividend yield, plus the inflation rate, plus the real earnings growth rate, minus the change in stock outstanding, plus changes in the P/E ratio,” CardinalStone Research analysts add.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in the Nigerian equities market traded N996.03 billion worth of stocks in five months to May 2025, more than double N458.29 billion seen in the corresponding period of 2024.
At the close of trading on Monday, the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and equities market capitalisation appreciated from preceding day’s lows of 126,149.59 points and N79.803 trillion respectively to 126,689.54 points and N80.143trillion.
“Although the market closed in positive territory today, we observed pockets of sell-side pressure,” analysts at Lagos-based Vetiva said on Monday. As stocks enter overbought territory following recent rallies, they expect this downward pressure to intensify in the next trading session.
The market closed on Tuesday as the federal government declared public holiday in honour of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Recently, Charlie Robertson, head of macro-strategy at FIM Partners, said: “Africa like much of emerging markets (EM), does well when the dollar is weak… and when Trump isn’t paying them much attention.
“Good to see some African equity markets powering ahead this year: Egypt (+16 percent in US dollars); Nigeria (+22 percent in US dollars); Kenya (+39 percent); and Morocco up 45 percent (I didn’t expect that),” Robertson added.
Read also: Banking, insurance stocks cause NGX highest weekly gain of N3.46trn
Longest bullish streak since January 2024
Similarly, Monday represented the longest bullish streak since January 2024, with the market closing in the green every day since July 1, 2025. In January 2024, the market recorded a positive close every day between January 10 and 29.
During the day, the bullish rally was led by some of the blue-chip stocks such as Dangote Cement, which advanced 1.18 percent to hit a N430 share price. About N1.18 billion worth of Dangote Cement were traded during the day. UBA also recorded a 5.63 percent rally, closing at a record share price of N46 per share. The stock recorded a trading value and volume of N3.05 billion and 68.791 million shares respectively.
Lower cap stocks such as Secure Electronic, Abbey Mortgage Bank, Ikeja Hotel, McNichols, and Tripple Gee were the top advancers of the day. They recorded 10 percent, 9.99 percent, 9.95 percent, 9.92 percent, and 9.78 percentage gains during the day.
In 2025, lower and mid-cap stocks have driven the bullish sentiments in the NGX, with stocks such as Champion Breweries posting 258 percent year-to-date gains. Ellah Lakes, Meyer, and Neimeth are also examples of stocks that have enjoyed the snowball effect of increased investor attention to the equities market this year. They have recorded year-to-date gains of 260 percent, 177 percent, and 270 percent respectively.
