The stock market closed the first week of the year 2025 on a positive note, driven by gains in BUA Goods, MTN Nigeria, and WAPCO among others, with investors gaining over N1.253 trillion.
The Nigerian Exchange, NGX market capitalisation, which represents total value of investment on the Exchange closed on Friday at N63.165 trillion from N61.912 trillion the previous week.
In the same vein, another major stock market performance indicator, the NGX All Share Index, ASI went up by 1.4% Week on Week (WoW) to close at 103,586.33 bases points from 102,133.30 bases points.
Further analysis showed that BUA Foods gained 5.1%, MTNN 3.1% and WAPCO 3.6% . The Year-to-Date (YtD) return settled at 0.6%. Trading activity was robust, as both trading volume and value increased by 93.9% WoW and 35.9% WoW, respectively.
Sectoral performance was broadly positive, as the Insurance Index rose by 26.9%, Consumer Goods Index 2.2%, Banking Index 0.6% and Industrial Goods Index 0.5% , while the Oil & Gas Index declined by 0.4% to close the week under review lower.
Market analysts believe that the positive performance of the market was boosted by the depreciation of the Naira, driven by macroeconomic reforms by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Government.
Foreign capital inflow continued to increase steadily, rising from a low of 4% in mid-2023 to an average of 16% by November 2024.
Analysts at Proshare Nigeria in its 2025 market outlook lamented how Nigeria’s capital market continues to grapple with high transaction costs, information asymmetry, monetary tightening, low trading volumes, and wide bid-ask spreads, all of which stifle liquidity. However, the report underscores the potential of leveraging the equity market through the listing of national assets, such as NNPC Limited, to unlock liquidity and stimulate domestic and foreign investment.
Analysts at Coronation Asset Management in their report, however, sounded more optimistic, noting that 2025 could be a more stable for the Nigerian economy than either 2023 or 2024.
