{"id":1061,"date":"2026-08-18T10:34:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T10:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/powernews.giv.com.ng\/?p=1061"},"modified":"2026-08-18T10:34:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T10:34:25","slug":"nigerias-five-week-reign-as-worlds-top-stock-market-ends-as-south-korea-surges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powernews.giv.com.ng\/index.php\/2026\/08\/18\/nigerias-five-week-reign-as-worlds-top-stock-market-ends-as-south-korea-surges\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria\u2019s five-week reign as world\u2019s top stock market ends as South Korea surges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Nigeria\u2019s<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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..Ghana now ranks second globally, while Nigeria slips to third as South Korean equities rebound sharply<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"01Businessday<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"01Businessday<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nigeria has lost its position as the world\u2019s best-performing stock market<\/a>, five weeks after taking the global crown from South Korea, as a sharp rebound in Korean equities pushed the Kospi back to the top of the Bloomberg ranking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data covering 92 global stock exchanges tracked by Bloomberg showed that, as of August 14, South Korea\u2019s Kospi had gained 68.52 percent year to date in dollar terms, ahead of Ghana\u2019s Composite Index at 66.68 percent and the Nigerian Exchange All-Share Index at 65.23 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Africa\u2019s most populous nation took the top spot on July 10, when its dollar-denominated returns briefly overtook South Korea\u2019s, extending a rally that has made the market one of the world\u2019s strongest performers this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reversal highlights how quickly global market leadership can change, particularly as South Korean equities rebound from a sharp July selloff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read also: Here are 10 oldest listed Nigerian companies on NGX<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Korea\u2019s sharp rebound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Korea\u2019s stock market is back in a technical bull market, just two weeks after a brutal downturn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, the East Asian country\u2019s benchmark Kospi closed four percent higher, leaving it about 23 percent above its July 30 low and meeting the widely used definition of a technical bull market, according to Yahoo Finance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The turnaround has been swift. The Kospi plunged about 40 percent from its June 22 peak to its July 30 trough, as losses in index heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix amplified the selloff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That same Thursday, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix closed more than five percent and seven percent higher respectively, as renewed optimism over Artificial-Intelligence-driven demand for memory chips lifted semiconductor stocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rebound has been driven by a recovery in global AI-related trading, although investors<\/a> remain conscious of the sharp gains accumulated by South Korean chipmakers and questions over whether the semiconductor sector has reached a peak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fundstrat Global Advisors said in an article last week that the recovery in Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix could give the broader South Korean market further momentum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Newton, head of technical strategy at Fundstrat, noted that the iShares MSCI South Korea ETF had broken through key technical levels as share prices of the country\u2019s memory-chip giants recovered, improving the near-term outlook for South Korean equities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysts at Macquarie Capital, meanwhile, said the steep July losses appeared to have been driven more by investor positioning and fund flows than by a deterioration in market fundamentals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foreign and institutional selling has stabilised since late July, while margin financing remains at reasonable levels, according to the bank\u2019s analysts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe volatility is over,\u201d Macquarie\u2019s analysts wrote in a recent note.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being in a technical bull market, however, does not guarantee that the Kospi\u2019s rally will continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macquarie expects the two chipmakers to lead the near-term rebound, supported by strong AI-driven demand for memory chips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are facing the worst memory crunch in history and see no signs of supply constraints easing within the next three years,\u201d the firm said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It added that AI inference-driven demand is \u201coff the charts,\u201d requiring large amounts of memory even as supply remains constrained and slow to respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nigeria\u2019s rally has a different foundation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nigeria\u2019s rise to the top of the global ranking has had a very different foundation from South Korea\u2019s technology-led rally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NGX market\u2019s performance has been supported by a combination of foreign-exchange reforms, relative naira stability, stronger corporate earnings, banking recapitalisation, higher dividends and strong domestic investor participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The naira\u2019s relative stability has also helped Nigerian equities perform strongly in dollar terms. For international investors, this matters because gains in local share prices can be eroded by currency depreciation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest currency performance marks a broader turnaround for the naira, following two years of sharp depreciation after major foreign-exchange reforms in 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read also: 25 Nigerian companies join NGX trillionaire club<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The currency stabilised in the second half of 2025 and appreciated against the dollar, eventually exiting Africa\u2019s 10 worst-performing currencies in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The improvement reflected stronger foreign-exchange liquidity, higher external reserves and policy measures aimed at improving the functioning of the FX market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The naira entered this year on a firmer footing and has continued to trade at stronger levels than during much of the previous two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of August 14, the average official exchange rate stood at N1,357.7\/$, its strongest level in two months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data from African Markets, a real-time market-tracking platform shows that, the naira was the second-best-performing currency among 17 African currencies against the dollar year to date as of August 16, with a gain of nearly six percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The relative strength of the currency has provided some relief to importers and borrowers with dollar exposure while also reducing the naira value of foreign-currency liabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For equity investors, however, the bigger significance is that a more stable currency reduces the risk that gains in Nigerian stocks will be wiped out when translated back into dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That has helped make the country\u2019s equity rally more compelling to global investors, even as foreign participation remains relatively limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nigeria\u2019s market comes under pressure<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite its strong year-to-date performance, Nigeria\u2019s market has recently pulled back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From August 10 to August 14, the NGX All-Share Index dropped by 2.78 percent to 242,619.2 points, while market capitalisation fell to N156.6 trillion from N160.4 trillion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a report on Monday, analysts at CSL Research noted that the market advanced in only one of the five trading sessions, resulting in a moderation of the year-to- date return to 55.9 percent in local , from 57.8 percent in the preceding week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decline, however, remains modest compared with the market\u2019s gains over the past several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Exchange, market capitalisation climbed to a record N158.1 trillion as of August 5, 2026, representing growth of about 450 percent from the first half of 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NGX All-Share Index also rose from 52,974 points in the first half of 2023 to a record 244,912.24 points, an increase of 339 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The figures underline the scale of the country\u2019s market re-rating, even after the recent pullback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking ahead, CSL expects a maintain a cautiously positive outlook on the domestic bourse as the recent pullback appears to reflect profit-taking following the strong rally in preceding weeks rather than a broad-based deterioration in market fundamentals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe expect investor sentiment this week to remain supported by the ongoing release of corporate earnings and continued corporate actions, although elevated valuations and recent profit-taking, alongside the recent availability of OMO bill securities to retail investors, could sustain near-term volatility as investors are likely to rotate capital into OMO securities,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reforms and earnings underpin the rally<\/strong>Related News<\/p>\n\n\n\n