Investment researchers and analysts at Bancorp Securities Limited, a leading investment consultancy and stockbroking firm in Nigeria, have predicted that trading in the nation’s equity market this week will remain cautious and selective following the deteriorating of the market indices last week.
The experts, in the firm’s ‘Weekly Stock Recommendation 14th–18th September 2026’ Note circulated to our correspondent on Monday, projected that despite the projected unimpressive outlook of the equities market, positioning in FTSE-eligible stocks ahead of Nigeria’s return to Frontier Market status on September 21, alongside expectations for pending Tier-1 H1 results and interim dividend announcements, could support fundamentally strong and liquid counters following the recent decline.
The analysts clarified: “We expect the equities market to remain cautious and selective this week, following the sharp deterioration in market breadth and broad-based selling across major sectors.
“However, positioning in FTSE-eligible stocks ahead of Nigeria’s return to Frontier Market status on September 21, alongside expectations for pending Tier-1 H1 results and interim dividend announcements, could support fundamentally strong and liquid counters following the recent decline.
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“Similarly, Liquidity will also remain important, particularly as the Dangote Refinery offer could drive portfolio reallocation as investors position for the capital raise. Overall, we expect market direction to be influenced by FTSE-related positioning, earnings expectations and liquidity conditions, while stocks with significant YTD gains remain vulnerable to profit-taking”, the researchers added.
The experts recalled that the Nigerian equities market reversed the previous week’s 2.36% gain last week, as broad-based profit-taking pushed the NGX All-Share Index down 1.60% week-on-week (W-o-W) to 243,052.74 points, moderating its YTD return to 56.19%.
But then, the market capitalisation declined by a comparatively lower 1.24% to N157.59 trillion, with the difference partly reflecting the listing of an additional 8.10 billion Dangote Sugar shares following the company’s rights issue.
According to the NGX data, the decline in capitalisation was broad-based, with Banking, Consumer Goods, Industrial Goods and Insurance closing lower, while Oil & Gas (+2.83%) was the only major equity sector to advance.
The analysts reported that in the week under review, trading activity moderated despite an increase in the number of transactions as the total volume declined 16.34% (W-o-W) to 3.65 billion shares, while value traded declined by 38.12% to NGN130.15 billion.
However, the market data further showed that the number of deals increased by 9.70% to 244,777 at the close of trading session last Friday.
