Nigeria’s stock market returned above the N160 trillion capitalisation mark on Monday, despite broad selling across listed companies, as gains in oil and gas and a handful of heavyweight stocks lifted the benchmark index.

The Nigerian Exchange All-Share Index rose 0.29 percent to 247,699.78 points, extending the market’s year-to-date gain to 59.18 percent, according to market data from the Nigerian Exchange.

Market capitalisation increased by about N1.04 trillion, or 0.65 percent, to N160.60 trillion.

The advance came despite a sharply negative market breadth, with 43 stocks closing lower compared with only 12 gainers.

Oil and gas stocks provided the strongest support. The NGX Oil and Gas Index rose 5.90 percent, led by Aradel Holdings, which gained 5.38 percent to N1,570.

Aradel also recorded the highest value of transactions, with about N7.59 billion worth of its shares changing hands.

MTN Nigeria, another large-cap stock, gained 2.45 percent to N832.90, while International Breweries rose 3.02 percent to N10.25. Zichis Agro Allied was the strongest percentage gainer, rising 9.97 percent to N18.20.

The gains in selected heavyweight stocks helped offset losses among several major banking and insurance companies.

UBA fell 1.85 percent, Zenith Bank lost 1.24 percent, Access Holdings declined 0.83 percent and GTCO dropped 0.75 percent. The banking index consequently fell 1.13 percent, while the insurance index declined 1.60 percent.

Trading activity was also considerably lower than the previous session. About 407.85 million shares were exchanged in 52,322 deals, with total turnover at N27.25 billion.

Access Holdings was the most traded stock by volume, accounting for about 40.04 million shares.

The latest session followed a strong first week of September in which the NGX All-Share Index gained 2.36 percent, while market capitalisation increased by about N3.7 trillion.

The market had entered September after a period of correction, making the latest recovery notable. Monday’s close placed the index close to its previous August peak, while market capitalisation moved above the N160 trillion threshold again.

The performance also comes ahead of a significant change in Nigeria’s international market classification.

FTSE Russell is scheduled to return Nigeria to its Frontier Market classification from September 21, 2026, after the country had previously been removed from the FTSE Frontier Index Series in 2023 because of concerns over foreign-exchange liquidity and the ability of international investors to repatriate funds.

The reclassification is expected to put Nigerian equities back on the radar of investors tracking FTSE Russell frontier-market benchmarks.

The Nigerian Exchange has also extended its trading session this year, moving the opening time to 9:00 am and the closing time to 4:00 pm from April 27. The Securities and Exchange Commission approved the change, which the exchange said was aimed at improving liquidity, price discovery and investor access.

Another development affecting the market is the growing pipeline of large capital-market transactions. Dangote Sugar Refinery recently increased its outstanding shares, while the company’s NGX profile showed 12.15 billion shares outstanding as of early September.

The equities market is also approaching the planned initial public offering of Dangote Petroleum Refinery, which is scheduled to open on September 14, according to reports. The offering is expected to be Africa’s largest IPO and could further increase activity on the Nigerian capital market.

For now, Monday’s figures show a market rising on concentrated buying rather than a broad-based rally. The 43 decliners against 12 gainers indicate that the increase in the headline index did not reflect a uniform rise across Nigerian equities.

The immediate performance of oil and gas stocks, developments in the banking recapitalisation programme, the return of Nigeria to FTSE Russell’s Frontier Market classification and the expected Dangote Refinery listing will therefore remain important factors for the market as investors move deeper into September.