By Taiye Olayemi
Lagos, Dec. 18, 2025
The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) extended its winning streak to four consecutive sessions on Thursday, delivering substantial wealth gains for investors. The market capitalization appreciated by N331 billion, closing at N95.856 trillion. This bullish momentum underscores a resilient investor appetite, particularly for established consumer goods and industrial stocks, amidst broader economic headwinds.
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The rally was fundamentally driven by sustained buying interest in a basket of 35 advancing stocks. The All-Share Index (ASI), the benchmark indicator for market performance, mirrored the gain, rising by 0.35% (520.23 points) to settle at 150,363.05. Consequently, the year-to-date (YTD) return climbed to 46.09%, solidifying 2025 as a period of robust recovery and growth for Nigerian equities.
Deconstructing the Drivers: Why These Stocks Led the Charge
The day’s performance was not a broad-based surge but a targeted rally. The top gainers provide critical insight into current market sentiment:
- Nestlé Nigeria (+10% to N1,958): As a defensive stock with pricing power and consistent demand for its essential food and beverage products, Nestlé often attracts safe-haven inflows. A 10% single-day jump suggests investors may be anticipating strong year-end earnings or reacting to positive news regarding foreign exchange availability for raw material imports.
- Guinness Nigeria (+9.98% to N289.70): Similar to Nestlé, Guinness represents a leading player in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. Its performance can signal confidence in discretionary consumer spending resilience. This surge could be tied to strategic company initiatives or sector-wide re-rating.
- Aluminium Extrusion Industries (+9.76%): This industrial stock’s significant gain points to investor optimism in Nigeria’s construction and manufacturing sectors, which are primary consumers of aluminium products. It may reflect expectations of increased government or private sector capital expenditure.
Other notable advancers included Daar Communications and Mecure Industries, highlighting selective interest across media and manufacturing.
The Flip Side: Understanding the Day’s Losers
Market breadth remained positive with 35 gainers against 26 losers, but the decliners list is equally telling. Stanbic IBTC Holdings led the laggards, down 9.33%. Financial stocks can be sensitive to interest rate expectations and macroeconomic policy shifts. This decline, alongside losses in Lasaco Assurance and Africa Prudential, may indicate profit-taking in the banking and insurance sectors following recent rallies or concerns about specific regulatory or operational challenges.
A Critical Divergence: Declining Volume Amidst Rising Prices
A deeper analysis of market activity reveals a crucial nuance. While prices rose, the total volume and value of shares traded declined significantly—from 5.9 billion shares worth N216.2 billion to 839.8 million shares worth N32.8 billion. This divergence suggests the rally was driven by selective, high-value investments in premium stocks rather than widespread, retail-driven buying frenzy. First Bank of Nigeria Holdings was the volume leader, accounting for nearly half of the day’s traded volume (385.62 million shares), indicating concentrated activity in this key banking stock.
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Context and Implications for Investors
This fourth consecutive gain builds positive momentum as the year winds down. The preference for blue-chip stocks like Nestlé and Guinness signals a “flight to quality” trend, where investors seek the relative safety and stability of companies with strong brands, consistent cash flows, and proven market leadership. However, the sharp drop in overall trading volume warrants caution. It may imply that the rally lacks broad participation and could be vulnerable to a reversal if the large players decide to take profits.
For market watchers, the key takeaway is the continued segmentation within the NGX. Performance is increasingly stock-specific, driven by individual company fundamentals and sectoral dynamics rather than a uniform market wave. Investors are meticulously picking winners, favoring companies perceived to have strong defensive moats or direct ties to tangible economic growth drivers.
Edited by Olawunmi Ashafa
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