The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) has reported a significant downturn in trading activity for August 2025, with total transactions on the bourse plunging by 49.9 per cent compared to the previous month.
According to the latest NGX domestic and foreign portfolio investment (FPI) report for August, total trades dropped from N1.8 trillion in July 2025 to N908.38 billion in August 2025.
This represents a sharp month-on-month contraction in market activity, representing one of the steepest single-month declines in recent periods. Despite this monthly downturn, the year-on-year comparison revealed a significant 139.4 per cent surge from N379.5 billion recorded in August 2024.
This suggests that, while short-term volatility remains a challenge, the market is still experiencing long-term growth in investor engagement, particularly when viewed against the backdrop of last year’s relatively subdued performance.
Further breakdown of the report indicated that domestic investors remained the dominant force in the market during August 2025, executing significantly more trades than their foreign counterparts.
Specifically, domestic investors accounted for approximately 81.1 per cent of total market transactions in August, far outpacing the 18.9 per cent share contributed by foreign investors. This means that domestic activity surpassed foreign participation by approximately 62 per cent in value terms.
However, within the domestic segment, the overall transaction value experienced a steep decline. Total domestic transactions dropped by 55.9 per cent from N1.7 trillion in July 2025 to N736.6 billion in August.
This sharp fall is largely attributed to the absence of the block trades that had inflated July’s figures. Block trades, which are typically large, privately negotiated securities transactions, contributed heavily to domestic transaction volumes in the previous month. Without those transactions, August’s domestic activity witnessed a significant contraction.
While domestic trading declined sharply, foreign investment activity showed moderate resilience as foreign transactions rose from N145.95 billion in July 2025 to N171.8 billion in August 2025, representing an increase of 17.72 per cent. In dollar terms, this growth translated from approximately $95.17 million in July to around $112.18 million in August.
This uptick in foreign participation, although not enough to offset the overall decline in market volume, underscored renewed interest from offshore investors amid shifting global and local investment climates.
In addition, institutional investors continued to outperform retail investors, with the former accounting for about 53.3 per cent of total domestic trades, while the latter contributed approximately 46.7 per cent.
However, both investor classes recorded declines in activity. Retail transactions dropped from N516.5 billion in July to N343.67 billion in August, a decrease of 33.5 per cent. Institutional trades experienced a sharper fall, plunging by 65.9 per cent from N1.2 trillion in July to N392.9 billion in August.
This substantial decline in institutional activity was a key driver of the overall dip in market performance, reinforcing the impact of reduced block trades.
Between 2007 and 2024, domestic transactions increased by 33.15 per cent, rising from N3.6 trillion to N4.7 trillion.Over the same 18-year period, foreign transactions rose from N616 billion in 2007 to N852 billion in 2024, representing an increase of 38.3 per cent. This indicates a broad upward trend in market activity, even as the market undergoes cyclical fluctuations.
In 2024, domestic transactions accounted for approximately 85 per cent of total activity on the exchange, with foreign transactions making up the remaining 15 per cent.
These proportions reflect the growing dominance of domestic players in Nigeria’s capital market, a trend that appears to have strengthened in 2025.
As at the end of August 2025, total domestic transactions for the year had reached approximately N5.46 trillion, while total foreign transactions stood at around N1.45 trillion.
These figures reaffirm the continued reliance of the Nigerian stock market on local investors, even as foreign interest begins to show signs of resurgence.
