Foreign and domestic investors’ equities trading declined by 49.95 per cent to N908.38 billion in August 2025, down from N1.815 trillion in July 2025.

Despite this decline, the local equities market saw a marginal gain of 0.31 per cent month-on-month, closing at 140,295.49 points, while market capitalization increased by N344.6 billion to N88.8 trillion.

According to Cowry Assets Management Limited, the Nigerian equities market posted a mixed performance in August, reflecting a tale of two halves.

“The first half of the month was dominated by a robust rally, fuelled by positive investor sentiment and the momentum carried over from July,” they said. “However, by mid-month, the market began to retrace as profit-taking set in, with the overvaluation of the index in July forcing a correction. This dragged the market from an overbought region to a moderately sold zone, trimming earlier gains.”

Further analysis revealed that domestic investors outperformed foreign investors by circa 62% in August 2025. Total domestic transactions decreased significantly by 55.87% from N1.6691 trillion in July 2025 to N736.57 billion in August 2025, primarily due to the absence of block trades that boosted domestic transaction figures in July 2025. In contrast, total foreign transactions increased by 17.72% from N145.95 billion to N171.81 billion between July 2025 and August 2025.

Institutional investors outperformed retail investors by 6%. Retail transactions decreased by 33.46% from N516.50 billion in July 2025 to N343.67 billion in August 2025, while the institutional composition of the domestic market decreased significantly by 65.91% from N1.1526 trillion in July 2025 to N392.90 billion in August 2025.