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The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) is taking aim at Zichis Agro-Allied Industries Plc, its latest equity listing, and has barred further trading in the company’s shares after findings showed the stock’s price jumped more than ninefold barely one month after it was admitted to the exchange.
The bourse told traders and the investing public in a Monday note that it will call off Zichis’ suspension, which comes into effect on 23 February, once its inquiry into the firm’s trading activities is over.
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Invoking a section of its rulebook that spells out the procedure for the suspension of trading in listed equities, the NGX said it “may, in accordance with any of its rules, place the trading of any security on suspension.”
The exchange “may also do so if it is of the view that such suspension will be in the interest of the investing public and in accordance with the SEC Rules,” the NGX cited the rulebook further.
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Zichis, based in Ogun State, was admitted to the NGX on 20 January when it listed 600 million shares by way of introduction at N1.81 per unit.
As of the close of trade last Friday, the stock was quoted at N17.36 in Lagos, marking a 859.1 per cent surge in the company’s valuation in less than five weeks. Market capitalisation is presently N10.4 billion, which compares to a little above N1 billion at listing.
That dramatic rise, the sharpest by any company quoted in Nigeria this year, makes Zichis the country’s “best-performing” stock so far in 2026.
Zichis is quoted on the growth board of the NGX, the listing segment dedicated to small-cap and growth-inclined companies with potential to scale, including tech firms. Its agribusiness operations cover oil palm production, fishery, poultry, animal feed manufacturing and crop cultivation.
“Our primary responsibility is to maintain a level playing field where market participants can trade with confidence, backed by timely and accurate information,” Olufemi Shobanjo, the CEO of NGX Regulation Limited, said in a post on the exchange’s website on Monday.
“This advisory is a routine communication, reinforcing that sound fundamentals, not speculation, remain the foundation for sustainable investment outcomes. We are fully committed to preserving the integrity and stability of our market,” he added.
The effort by Nigeria’s stock market authorities to bring Zichis’ trading activities under scrutiny coincides with a steady trend in which several stocks on the NGX continue to record strong price appreciation with no sound fundamentals to show for it.
Dramatic price gains without clear drivers have been observed in some firms that have consistently reported losses for years, yet are attracting considerable buyer interest. This has made calls for market watchdogs and regulators to zero in on the market activities of such companies more urgent.
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“For Zichis, what we saw is actually quite surprising. For a stock to deliver a return of 859 per cent is already too high. Not too high in the sense that a stock cannot do that, rather it kind of gives us reason to suspect,” an investment analyst at a Lagos-based research house, who does not want his name mentioned, told PREMIUM TIMES.
“In terms of price manipulation, it’s easy to manipulate the price of any stock. In this case, you can see it as maybe I’m just one large investor, and you are my friend, and you are also a large investor. We can just be selling the stock to each other, and we will be driving the share price higher. Something like that can happen. Maybe when we begin to get it to a certain point, we can just sell off.”
He remarked that the practice is called “dumping”, adding that it is technically what price manipulation is about.
If the NGX finds evidence of share manipulation at the end of its investigation, the dealers and brokers involved in the transactions may face sanctions, the analyst noted.
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