The Nigerian equities market surged to a record high on Tuesday, May 27, 2025, with the All-Share Index (ASI) climbing 1.49% to close at 111,606.22 points, surpassing the 111,000 mark for the first time in history.
The rally translated into a market capitalisation gain of ₦1.04 trillion, raising the total to ₦70.38 trillion and reflecting renewed investor confidence amid easing liquidity conditions.
Airtel Africa led the top gainers with a 10% increase, followed by Omatek (+9.23%), Cornerstone Insurance (+8.63%), NAHCO (+8.39%), and UPL (+6.47%). Meanwhile, McNichols (-9.80%), CWG (-9.50%), and Champion (-7.38%) posted the steepest losses of the day.
All major sector indices ended in positive territory. The NGX Insurance Index posted the highest gain at 2.23%, followed by the Industrial Goods (+1.96%) and Banking (+1.55%) indices, while the Oil & Gas sector recorded the smallest uptick at 0.78%.
Market activity was mixed. Though the number of deals fell by 18.07% and the value of trades dropped 9.35% to ₦9.87 billion, total trading volume rose slightly by 1.13% to 409.57 million shares. Custodian Investment, Fidelity Bank, and Veritas Kapital topped trading volumes, with over 107 million shares exchanged among them.
In the fixed-income space, money market conditions loosened, with NIBOR rates declining across all tenors. The Overnight Lending Rate rose marginally by 11bps to 26.89%, while the Open Repo Rate remained flat at 26.50%. Treasury yields also fell modestly, with the average Nigerian Treasury Bills (NTB) yield dipping by 3bps to 20.71%.
The Eurobond market was bullish, buoyed by strong demand for sovereign notes such as the JAN-31 and MAR-29 papers. The average Eurobond yield dropped by 9bps to 9.69%.
However, the naira weakened slightly in the forex market. It depreciated by 0.27% at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), closing at ₦1,583.74/$, while the parallel market rate slipped to ₦1,614/$.
Despite the high inflation rate of 23.71% (April 2025) and the elevated Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 27.75%, robust earnings and investor optimism appear to be fuelling market momentum, even as economic growth holds steady at a real GDP of 3.84% in Q4 2024.
