Retail transactions on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) surged by 33.10% in January 2025, climbing from N200.9 billion in December to N267.4 billion.
In contrast, institutional investors dip, dropping from N406 billion to N268.2 billion over the same period.
The December 2025 edition of the NGX Domestic and Foreign Portfolio Investment Report indicated that while retail transactions rose by 33 per cent, the institutional composition of the domestic market decreased by 33.95 per cent.
Analysts attributed the unprecedented surge in retail transactions to increased investors’ participation, market volatility, inflation hedging, government policies and speculation.
According to them, more individuals, especially younger investors, are entering the market due to easy access to trading apps and social media influence.
Market fluctuations also create opportunities, while low returns from fixed-income investments push people toward equities.
Inflation concerns drive investors to stocks and other assets to protect their wealth while government policies, tax incentives and lower transaction costs also encouraged more retail activity.
On the other hand, market volatility and broader economic uncertainty contributed to institutional investors’ retreat from equities.
Currency fluctuations and policy changes have introduced unpredictability, increasing risk aversion among large-scale investors.
As a result, many institutional players opted to reduce their exposure to stocks in favour of more stable investment options, leading to a notable decline in their participation.
Further breakdown of the data showed that the total value of transactions executed by domestic investors outperformed transactions executed by foreigners by 76 per cent within the period.
Domestic transactions also accounted for about 85 per cent of the total transactions carried out in 2024, whilst foreign transactions constituted about 15 per cent of the total transactions in the same period.
The transaction data for 2025 indicated that total domestic transactions are worth N535.54 billion, whilst total foreign transactions are N71.51 billion.
As at January 31, 2025, total transactions at the country’s bourse decreased by 9.9 per cent from N673.7 billion (about $438.64 million) in December 2024 to N607.05 billion (about $410.84 million) in January 2025.
The performance of the current month (December) when compared to the performance in January 2024 (N651.5 billion) revealed that total transactions decreased by 6.83 per cent.
Over 18-year period, domestic transactions increased by 33.15 per cent from N3.6 trillion in 2007 to N4.7 trillion in 2024, while foreign transactions also increased by 38.3 per cent from N616 billion to N852 billion over the same period.
