Nigeria’s equity market closed Thursday, April 30, 2026 with a stronger message than the global oil selloff would normally allow: the NGX ASI rose 1.50% to 1,621.34, even as Brent crude slumped 7.1% to $109.6 a barrel. That divergence was the key feature of NGX today: oil weakness darkened the macro backdrop, but it did not stop a rotation into telecom-linked defensives, selected industrials and a handful of heavyweight names.
Key figures
- NGX ASI: +1.50% at 1,621.34
- Brent crude: -7.1% at $109.6/bbl
- USD/NGN: 1,371.43, down 0.22% on the day
- Market breadth: 40 gainers, 39 losers, 6 unchanged
- Seplat Energy: +10.0% at NGN 11,495
Market context
The 1.50% rise in the benchmark index came from a market that was far from uniformly bullish. Breadth was almost flat, with 40 stocks up, 39 down and 6 unchanged out of 85 tracked names. In other words, the benchmark’s gain was driven more by the weight of selected large caps and sharp sector moves than by a broad-based rally across the board.