…ASI up 51.19% year-to-date
Nigeria’s equities market delivered an exceptional performance in 2025, rewarding investors with a 51.19 percent return, up from 37.65 percent in 2024.
The market’s value surged by N36.62 trillion during the year, with total capitalisation climbing to N99.4 trillion compared with N62.76 trillion at the close of 2024.
Reflecting on the milestone year, Temi Popoola, group managing director/chief executive officer of Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX Group), said the market’s resilience stood out in 2025 despite domestic and global headwinds.
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“This performance underscores the importance of policy consistency, purposeful reforms, and strategic collaboration in strengthening investor confidence and sustaining market growth,” he said.
Popoola added that economic reforms, market structure enhancements, and continued investment in technology helped to reinforce transparency, broaden access, and support capital formation.
Looking ahead, he said the NGX Group would deepen collaboration across the financial ecosystem to sustain momentum into 2026 and further position Nigeria’s capital market as a catalyst for economic growth and wealth creation.
Lizzie Kings-Wali, chief executive officer of 4Stone Capital Limited, said the re-pricing of naira-denominated assets in 2025 was largely driven by the lagged effects of the 2023/24 currency devaluation and persistent inflation.
She noted that equities rallied strongly despite average yields of about 20 percent in the fixed-income market, while real estate and alternative assets such as commodities also posted solid returns.
“I remain cautiously optimistic on Nigerian equities, given their discounted valuations compared to peer emerging and frontier markets,” she said.
Kings-Wali highlighted that the NGX All-Share Index traded at about 8x price-to-earnings, versus 16.5x and 12.1x for the MSCI Emerging and Frontier Markets indices respectively. She described tier-1 banks such as Zenith Bank and United Bank for Africa as significantly undervalued, and also expressed bullishness on industrials such as Dangote Cement.
She expects consumer-goods stocks to benefit from easing inflation and improving purchasing power, while advising investors to take advantage of current high fixed-income yields ahead of a likely lower-rate environment in 2026.
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Although high fiscal deficits and government borrowing may suggest otherwise, Kings-Wali believes increased money supply and risk-off banking sentiment will still support a downward shift in yields.
She added that moderating inflation and liquidity conditions could eventually soften returns on alternative assets, including real estate.
