Nigeria’s stock market suffered another sharp selloff on Monday as equity investors lost more than N1.17 trillion, extending last week’s weakness and reinforcing bearish sentiment across the Nigerian Exchange (NGX).
The fresh downturn followed a turbulent week in which the market shed N1.5 trillion amid heavy selloffs triggered by a new capital gains tax policy.
Although the market briefly rebounded, it failed to recover the earlier losses, setting the stage for Monday’s broad-based decline driven by profit-taking and cautious positioning.
The All-Share Index fell 1.26%, closing at 145,159.77, while market capitalisation dropped by ₦1.172 trillion to ₦92.32 trillion, signalling renewed pressure on large-cap names. The year-to-date return also moderated as investors continued to unwind positions across sectors.
This decline happened despite a slightly positive market breadth, suggesting that while more stocks gained than declined, losses in bigger counters outweighed the broader uptick.
Sectoral Weakness Led by Industrial Goods
The selloff was most pronounced in the industrial goods sector, which plunged 4.48%, dragged down by major names like DANGCEM, one of the session’s biggest losers. Other notable decliners included TRANSCORP, ACCESSCORP, and EUNISELL, even as headline inflation eased to 16.05% in October 2025.
The oil & gas sector retreated by 1.18%, the banking index dipped 1.01%, and the consumer goods sector slipped 0.02%, leaving insurance as the only advancing sector with a mild +0.07%.
Trading Activity Weakens Further
Trading momentum collapsed as total market volume fell by 92.64%, while the value of trades slid 26.88%, reflecting a slowdown in investor participation. Stockbrokers reported that 360.60 million units valued at ₦30,892.49 million were exchanged across 27,975 deals.
TANTALIZER dominated volume activity with 14.74% of total trades, followed by ARADEL (7.85%), GTCO (5.62%), ASOSAVINGS (5.17%), and STERLINGNG (4.00%), while ARADEL led the value chart, accounting for 69.06% of total value traded.
Winners and Losers
Despite the market downturn, gainers outpaced losers with 28 advancers versus 24 decliners, led by SOVRENINS (+9.97%), NCR (+9.96%), TANTALIZER (+9.81%), PRESTIGE (+9.70%), EUNISELL (+8.52%), and IKEJAHOTEL (+8.33%). These sizeable gains, however, were not strong enough to offset the weight of losses in larger-cap stocks.
Top losers included DANGCEM (-10.00%) and ENAMELWA (-10.00%), followed by TRANSCORP (-4.66%), AIICO (-4.11%), GUINEAINS (-3.97%), and WAPIC (-3.45%), reflecting sustained risk aversion across the board.