Domestic Investors Drive 91% Surge In NGX Trading To N13.25trn As Foreign Share Drops To 10%

Activity on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) has accelerated sharply this year, with total transactions in the first eight months of 2026 jumping 91.5 per cent to N13.25 trillion from N6.92 trillion in the same period of 2025.

The surge has been powered largely by domestic capital. Transactions by domestic investors rose to N11.89 trillion between January and August, representing 89.77 percent of total market transactions, while foreign investors accounted for N1.35 trillion, or 10.23 percent.

Domestic transactions more than doubled from N5.46 trillion in the corresponding period of last year, while foreign transactions declined from N1.45 trillion. That pushed the domestic share of transactions to 89.77 percent from 78.99 percent a year earlier, while foreign participation fell to 10.23 percent from 21.01 percent.

Institutional investors are leading the domestic charge. They accounted for N7.36 trillion of domestic transactions between January and August, compared with N4.53 trillion from retail investors. In the same period of 2025, institutional and retail transactions stood at N3.13 trillion and N2.33 trillion respectively.

The scale of domestic activity this year has already surpassed the level recorded for the whole of 2025. Domestic transactions stood at N9.27 trillion last year, meaning the N11.89 trillion recorded in eight months is already about 28 percent higher.

Foreign participation moved in the opposite direction. Foreign transactions, which stood at N2.65 trillion for the whole of 2025, amounted to N1.35 trillion in the first eight months of this year.

Trading activity, however, slowed sharply in August after a strong July. Total transactions fell 46.38 percent to N1.27 trillion in August from N2.37 trillion in the previous month. Despite the decline, August transactions were 39.75 percent higher than the N908.4 billion recorded in the same month last year.

Domestic transactions declined 45.98 per cent month-on-month to N1.21 trillion, while foreign transactions dropped 53.23 percent to N62.03 billion. Domestic investors consequently accounted for 95.11 percent of transactions in August, leaving foreign investors with 4.89 percent.

The slowdown was more pronounced among institutional investors, whose transactions fell 60.39 percent to N654.61 billion from N1.65 trillion in July. Retail transactions declined by a much smaller 5.08 percent to N552.88 billion.

NGX data showed domestic investors have become an increasingly important source of liquidity, with transactions rising from N3.56 trillion in 2007 to N9.27 trillion in 2025 before climbing to N11.89 trillion in the first eight months of 2026.