Where and how can I find historical share prices for previous financial years?

For Nigerian-listed shares, start with Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), your stockbroker’s historical price records, and the company’s annual reports. The main thing is to ask for the price on a particular date, because there is no single share price for an entire financial year.

Think of Mama Ngozi checking what tomatoes cost last year. Does she mean the price on the last market day in December, the average price throughout the year, or the highest price that year? Those figures can be different. The same applies to shares.

If you are comparing a company’s financial results across years, the closing share price at each financial year-end is a useful starting point. “Closing price” means the price recorded at the end of the trading day. If the year-end falls on a weekend or public holiday, use the last trading day before it. Also check the company’s financial year-end, because it may not be 31 December.

Here is how to find the figures:

1. Check NGX’s official website.

Go to ngxgroup.com and look for market data, daily price lists or historical data services. You need the individual company’s share price, not the All-Share Index, which tracks the wider market.

Older records may not all be freely available online. If you cannot find your dates, contact NGX through its official contact details and ask how to obtain historical daily closing prices. Confirm whether there is a fee.

2. Ask your stockbroker for a historical price report.

You can send this request: “Please provide the daily closing prices for [company name and trading symbol] from [start date] to [end date], preferably in Excel or CSV. Please confirm whether the prices are adjusted for share splits, bonus issues or other changes to the shares.”

CSV is simply a file format you can open in Excel. The available history and any charges will depend on the broker.

3. Check the company’s annual reports.

Visit the company’s official website and open its investor relations or annual reports page. Some reports include the year-end market price, the year’s highest and lowest prices, or a share-performance summary.

Search inside the report for “share price”, “market price” or “share information”. Not every company includes these figures. Also, do not confuse “nominal value” or “par value” with the market price. A share’s stated face value is not necessarily what investors paid for it on the exchange.

4. Use financial-data websites as a second source.

Sites such as Investing.com may carry historical prices for some Nigerian shares. Search for the company, confirm that the listing is on the Nigerian exchange and quoted in naira, then look for “Historical Data”. Coverage and download access vary, so cross-check important figures with NGX or your broker.

One small detail can spoil an otherwise good analysis: adjusted prices.

Suppose, purely as an example, Mama Ngozi owned 100 shares priced at ₦20 each. The company then split every share into two. She would have 200 shares at roughly ₦10 each immediately after the split, with the same total value before other market movements. A price chart showing ₦20 falling to ₦10 could wrongly look like a 50% loss.

That is why you should ask whether the historical prices have been adjusted for changes like share splits and bonus issues. If you want the actual quoted price on a past date, request the unadjusted closing price. If you want to measure investment performance, account for those changes and dividends too. Do not assume every provider’s “adjusted close” includes the same things.

For your analysis, keep a simple spreadsheet showing each financial year-end, the trading date used, the closing price and the source. Use the same method across all the years.

Finally, if you are testing what an investor could have known at the time, check when the results became public. A December year-end result published the following March was not yet available to someone buying in December. Matching the right price with the right information date makes your analysis much more reliable.