The total market capitalisation of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) instruments increased to N121.4 trillion in May 2025 as the bourse continued to witness massive trading activities.
This is about 3.9per cent increase over N116.7 trillion declared by the NGX for April 2025.
These instruments comprise of debt, Exchange Traded Funds (ETF), and equities. For the debt market, it is made up of corporate Bonds/Debentures, FGN Bonds and State and Local Bonds.
As contained in the market statistics for May 2025, the equities market contributed about 58.07 per cent of the total market capitalisation and continues to dominate transactions on NGX, followed by debt.
In the period under review, market capitalisation for equities stood at N70.470 trillion, about N3.97 trillion increase from N66.504 trillion declared in April 2025.
It implies that investors’ return trading on the NGX equities market has increased by N3.97 trillion in May 2025 and N7.7 trillion in the first five months of 2025.
The equities market growth of N7.7 trillion in the first five months of 2025 can be attributed to strong earnings by listed companies, and foreign investors surge demand for fundamental stocks.
Breakdown by equities market capitalisation revealed that, in January 2025, it appreciated by N1.95 trillion, and in February 2025, it appreciated by N2.48 trillion to close at N67.193 trillion.
In March 2025, the equities market was down by N936 billion as investors shifted attention to money market instruments. In addition, it gained N239.03 billion in April 2025 from N66.257 trillion it opened for trading to close at N66.496 trillion.
However, the equities market gained N3.97 trillion buoyed by investors’ demand for Airtel Africa Plc that added N810.3billion by market capitalization.
In the five months under review, Nigeria’s inflation showed signs of easing, currently at 23.71per cent amid its rebased National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth projections were revised upward by key stakeholders.
So far this year, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has continued its monetary policy tightening to stabilise the naira and inflation.
Under Dr. Olayemi Cardoso of the CBN, Nigeria economy has seen gradual clearance of the foreign exchange backlogs and heh has restored stability into the foreign exchange market as he had reassured both local and foreign investors from day he resumed duty.
Listed corporate earnings on NGX also played a pivotal role with major fundamental companies declaring impressive earnings in the first quarter ended March 2025 and others migrated to profit generation.
Capital market analysts noted that the corporate earnings reports of Q1 2025, coupled with strong dividend declarations from the 2024 FY results, especially from the banking sector, cement manufacturing companies, encouraged investors seeking returns in a volatile macro environment.
Domestic investors were a major force behind the rally. With foreign portfolio investment still on the path to recovery, local institutional investors such as pension funds and asset managers increased their market activity. Retail investors also became more active, aided by easier access to trading platforms and growing interest in capital market opportunities.
Capital market analysts noted that sustaining this momentum in the remainding of 2025 will depend on the continuation of stable and credible economic policies.
The MD/CEO, Globalview Capital Limited, Aruna Kebira, in a chat with THISDAY said the stock market has shown a resilient and generally positive performance during the first five months of 2025, despite some volatility and economic headwinds.
He listed banking sector recapitalization, corporate earnings, inflation moderation (early q1, investor confidence and increased transaction volume as the major drives of the stock market in the first five months of 2025.
On expectation for June 2025, he said the outlook for the Nigerian stock market in June 2025 remains cautiously optimistic, with several factors that include, continued impact of reforms, banking sector momentum:, half year earnings season, regulatory reforms and fixed income market stability:
In terms of debt market, its capitalisation stood at N50.851ttrillion in May 2025, about N635.69billion increase when compared to N trillion reported by the Exchange in April 2025. Consequently, ETF market capitalisation moved from N24.822 billion in April 2025, a growth of N729.6million to N25.551 billion in May 2025.
According to the report, the total equity transactions traded on the NGX increased by 45.3 per cent to N350.25billion in May 2025 from N241.02 billion declared in April 2025.
The statistics revealed that Banking, Insurance Carriers, Brokers & Services, Micro-Finance Banks, Mortgage Carriers, Brokers & Services, among other financial institutions contributed 55.5 per cent or N194.25 billion out of the total N350.25 billion was traded by investors in May 2025.
The statistics revealed that a total volume of 13,549,983,338 was traded by investors in May 2025, about 63.58 per cent increase over 8,283,246,236 traded in April 2025.
It also revealed that the Exchange witnessed 377,113 deals in May 2025, representing an increase of 44.3 per cent from 261,326 deals in April 2025.
Similarly, total debt traded in May 2025 stood at N390.87 million, representing an increase of 16.1per cent when compared to N 336.7million in April 2025.