Nigeria’s equities market recorded an outstanding performance in 2025, delivering a return of 51.19 per cent to investors, a significant improvement from the 37.65 per cent gain recorded in 2024.
The strong rally translated into a substantial increase in market value, as total capitalisation rose by N36.62 trillion within the year. This pushed the market’s overall capitalisation to N99.4 trillion, compared with N62.76 trillion at the end of 2024.
Commenting on the market’s performance, the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Exchange Group, Temi Popoola, said the equities market demonstrated remarkable resilience throughout 2025 despite facing both domestic and global economic headwinds.
“This performance underscores the importance of policy consistency, purposeful reforms, and strategic collaboration in strengthening investor confidence and sustaining market growth,” Popoola said.
He explained that a combination of economic reforms, improvements in market structure, and sustained investment in technology helped to enhance transparency, widen market access, and support capital formation during the year.
Looking ahead, Popoola stated that the NGX Group would intensify collaboration across the broader financial ecosystem to maintain the positive momentum into 2026 and further position Nigeria’s capital market as a key driver of economic growth and wealth creation.
Also speaking on the market outlook, the Chief Executive Officer of 4Stone Capital Limited, Lizzie Kings-Wali, attributed the re-pricing of naira-denominated assets in 2025 largely to the delayed effects of the 2023 and 2024 currency devaluation, as well as the impact of persistent inflation.
She noted that equities recorded strong gains despite average yields of around 20 percent in the fixed-income market. According to her, other asset classes, including real estate and alternative investments such as commodities, also delivered solid returns over the period.
“I remain cautiously optimistic on Nigerian equities, given their discounted valuations compared to peer emerging and frontier markets,” Kings-Wali said.
She pointed out that the NGX All-Share Index was trading at approximately eight times price-to-earnings, compared with 16.5 times for the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and 12.1 times for the MSCI Frontier Markets Index. She described tier-one banks such as Zenith Bank and United Bank for Africa as significantly undervalued, while also expressing a bullish outlook on industrial stocks, including Dangote Cement.
Kings-Wali added that consumer goods stocks are expected to benefit from easing inflation and improving purchasing power. She also advised investors to take advantage of the current high yields in the fixed-income market ahead of a possible lower interest rate environment in 2026.
Despite concerns that high fiscal deficits and increased government borrowing could limit yield moderation, Kings-Wali said she believes that rising money supply and a risk-off sentiment within the banking sector would still support a downward movement in yields.
She further noted that moderating inflation and changing liquidity conditions could, over time, reduce returns on alternative asset classes, including real estate.
