NGX sees 8.761bn shares traded in three days

The Nigerian Trade Restricted witnessed a unprecedented surge in exercise as traders traded 8.761 billion shares valued at N267.253bn in 193,473 offers, regardless of a shortened buying and selling week.

This large turnover, which occurred in simply three enterprise days as a result of Federal Authorities declaring public holidays on 19 and 20 March to commemorate the Eid-el-Fitr celebration, stood in stark distinction to the earlier week’s complete of three.321 billion shares valued at N164.845bn.

The ICT business dominated the exercise chart by quantity, accounting for five.330 billion shares price N46.825bn and contributing a staggering 60.84 per cent to the full fairness turnover. This momentum was largely pushed by heavy buying and selling in E-Tranzact Worldwide Plc, FCMB Group Plc, and Wema Bank Plc, which collectively represented practically 70 per cent of the week’s complete quantity.

The market’s main benchmarks mirrored this bullish sentiment, with the NGX All-Share Index and Market Capitalisation each appreciating by 1.39 per cent to shut the week at 201,156.86 factors and N129.126tn respectively.

Whereas the broader market flourished, sectoral efficiency was blended; the NGX Insurance coverage, Oil & Fuel, and Commodity indices recorded depreciations, whereas the NGX Sovereign Bond index remained flat. Amidst this volatility, the trade additionally expanded its choices with the itemizing of NGX30U6 and NGXPENSIONU6 Futures Contracts, alongside new business paper issuances from NGN Gram Restricted totalling billions in worth.

Market analysts have famous that the push into equities and the tightening of yields within the fixed-income area counsel a strategic shift amongst institutional gamers. Of their weekly evaluation, analysts at Meristem Securities noticed that traders are transferring with elevated urgency to safe positions earlier than market circumstances shift additional.

In accordance with the agency’s perspective on the present local weather, “As yields start to pattern decrease, traders transfer shortly to lock in still-attractive charges earlier than additional declines materialise, a behaviour evident within the vital rise in subscriptions and the downward pattern of common Treasury invoice yields.”

This aggressive positioning signifies that regardless of the holiday-shortened window, the urge for food for each high-volume equities and debt devices stays at a peak for the primary quarter of 2026.

The present surge within the ICT sector is not only a weekly anomaly; it represents a major structural shift within the Nigerian Trade that has been gaining momentum since 2024. Traditionally, the Monetary Companies business has been the normal heavyweight of the Nigerian market, usually accounting for 50 per cent to 70 per cent of complete buying and selling exercise.

Nevertheless, the information from March 2026 exhibits the ICT sector contributing 60.84 per cent of complete quantity and 17.52 per cent of worth, a stark distinction to its historic standing.

The dominance seen within the third week of March 2026 is pushed by a number of crucial components, together with the ‘Fintech’ surge. Firms like E-Tranzact have seen their market capitalisations practically double within the final 12 months, hitting N180bn in March 2026, reflecting the large adoption of digital fee infrastructure in Nigeria.

The expansion is now not restricted to only telecom giants like MTN and Airtel; mid-cap expertise companies specialising in cloud computing and information centres are seeing unprecedented buying and selling volumes as Nigeria’s “Digital Public Infrastructure” expands.

The ICT sector’s 58 per cent year-on-year market capitalisation progress in 2025 set the stage for the high-conviction buying and selling seen this month. Whereas the Monetary Companies sector nonetheless leads in worth with N95.892bn in contrast with ICT’s N46.825bn this week, the sheer quantity of shares altering palms in ICT signifies that retail and institutional traders are more and more viewing expertise as the first engine for future progress.