By Chibuzor Alli
Investors in Nigeria’s equities market have lost about N3.6tn in three trading days as heavy selling pressure pushed the market lower, with analysts linking the decline partly to preparations for the much-anticipated Dangote Petroleum Refinery initial public offering (IPO).
The market capitalisation of listed equities fell by N3.551tn on Wednesday to N157.049tn, from N160.600tn at the close of trading on Monday, 7 September 2026.
The All-Share Index, which tracks the performance of listed equities, also declined by 5,476.68 points, or 2.3%, from 247,699.78 to 242,223.10.
Vice-President of Highcap Securities Limited, David Adonri, said the recent selling pressure could be linked partly to retail investors raising cash to participate in the Dangote refinery IPO.
According to him, some retail investors who have accumulated gains from the strong equities market rally are now taking profits and converting part of their holdings into cash ahead of the offer.
Adonri said the planned Dangote Refinery IPO, which is expected to raise about N2.15tn, is attracting significant interest from investors, with some existing shareholders likely to be repositioning their portfolios to free up funds for the offer.
He also argued that the selling pressure should therefore not necessarily be interpreted as a loss of confidence in the equities market, as part of the funds being raised by investors could be redirected into the refinery offer when subscription opens.
The downturn was driven by price declines in several large- and medium-capitalised stocks, including Nestlé, BUA Cement, Nigerian Breweries, Cadbury, May & Baker, Oando, NEM Insurance, Zichis, GTCO and Wema Bank.
The market recorded 11 gainers, while 44 stocks closed lower.
FTN Cocoa, Japaul, MCNichols, Omatech, NSL Tech, Zichis and BUA Cement each lost 10%, closing at N7.65, N2.34, N4.50, N1.35, 63 kobo, N15.39 and N278.10 respectively.
Cadbury followed with a 9.94% decline to close at N58.45. International Energy Insurance fell 9.88% to N2.28, while Tripple Gee lost 9.79% to close at N2.58.
Nigerian Breweries declined by 9.76% to N74, while UPDC REIT fell 9.75% to N12.50.
Neimeth dropped 9.66% to N6.55, while Mutual Benefits lost 7.54% to close at N2.82.
Champion Breweries led the gainers, rising 9.90% to close at N11.10. VFD Group followed with a 9.52% gain to N11.50, while UPDC added 5.88% to close at N3.60.
Ikeja Hotel gained 4.58% to close at N44.50, while Cutix rose 3.06% to N2.36. Sterling Bank also gained 2.67% to close at N7.70.
Trading activity also weakened. Total volume fell by 201.27 million shares, or 27.36%, as investors traded 534.45 million shares compared with 735.72 million shares the previous day.
The value of transactions fell by 18.8% to N22.28bn across 46,943 deals.
Sterling Financial Holdings Company led trading activity with 78.108 million shares worth N582.15m.
Mutual Benefits followed with 75.538 million shares valued at N216.007m. AccessCorp traded 25.108 million shares worth N674.222m, while Zenith Bank exchanged 19.27 million shares valued at N2.327bn.
GTCO Plc recorded 17.105 million shares worth N2.191bn.
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