Nigeria’s equities market recorded a 42 per cent increase in trading activity in January on a year-on-year basis. This is despite a sharp decline in transactions compared to the previous month.

Data from the Nigerian Exchange Ltd showed that total transactions rose to N862 billion in January, up from N607.1 billion in the same period in 2025. However, on a month-on-month basis, trading activity dropped by 37.55 per cent to N1.38 trillion from N2.21 trillion posted in December 2025.

This reflected reduced participation across both domestic and foreign market segments.

The report indicated that domestic investors continued to dominate market activity, accounting for about 86.8 per cent of total transactions, while foreign investors accounted for 13.2 per cent.

Domestic transactions stood at N747.8 billion, compared to N114.1 billion recorded by foreign investors during the review period. Further analysis revealed that domestic transactions declined by 18.92 per cent from N922 billion in December 2025 to N747.8 billion in January.

Foreign transactions, however, recorded a sharper drop of 75.08 per cent, falling from N458 billion in December to N114 billion in January.

NGX attributed the significant decline in foreign participation to the absence of large block trades that boosted transaction volumes in December 2025.

Within the domestic segment, institutional investors slightly outperformed retail investors, with transactions valued at N388 billion, representing a 35.73 per cent decline from the N604 billion recorded in December.

Meanwhile, retail investors recorded increased activity, as transactions rose by 12.92 per cent to N360 billion in January from N317 billion in the preceding month.

This indicated improved participation by individual investors.

(NAN)