Welcome to Extended Hours - The New Normal

The NGX just extended trading hours from 4.5 hours to a full 7 hours, the first week of the new bell, and trust me, the market used every minute. Some stocks went on a tear, some got humbled, and the naira quietly tiptoed out the back door. Pour yourself something and take notes.

The naira had a soft week, and the softness was uniform. Meaning it didn't lose ground against just one currency, it slipped against all four of the majors we track.

When the naira weakens against the dollar but remains steady against the pound or the euro, you can sometimes blame it on global dollar strength.

However, when it weakens against all of them simultaneously, the pressure is coming from within the country, meaning local supply isn't matching local demand.

The intra-week story is also worth a glance. The dollar started the week at ₦1,364, jumped to ₦1,380 on Tuesday, peaked at a daily high of ₦1,386 on Wednesday, then eased back to ₦1,374 by Thursday. The pattern was the same across the other three currencies: pressure built mid-week, then cooled slightly heading into the long weekend.

As of April 29, gross external reserves stood at $48.37 billion, down from $48.44B last Friday. If we zoom out a little, it's a $813 million drop for April. Earlier in April, reserves had also fallen by $1.14 billion to $48.88 billion as of April 8, partly due to a recent policy shift that allowed oil companies to repatriate export proceeds fully.

If you're newer to this, think of reserves like a country's emergency dollar savings account. When the CBN sells dollars into the market to keep the naira stable, it draws from this account. The fact that reserves are dropping while the naira is also weakening tells you the CBN is spending dollars, but the supply pressure is still winning, for now. Not a panic signal, but worth watching.

Okay, this is where the week gets fun.

The NGX All-Share Index gained 7.33% in just four trading days, closing at 242,277.81. Market capitalisation jumped to ₦155.99 trillion. Year-to-date, the market is now up 55.69%, meaning if you bought a basket of Nigerian stocks on January 1, you've grown your money by more than half before the year is even halfway done.

Volume tells us investors weren't just watching, they were trading hard. 4.842 billion shares changed hands this week, up from 3.805 billion the week before, with ₦287.76 billion in total value.

The Financial Services industry alone (banks, insurance, holdcos) made up 77.56% of all shares traded. Three names, Access Holdings, UBA, and Wema Bank, accounted for over 2 billion of those shares between them. So even though banks fell in price, people were dumping and grabbing them in huge volumes.

The breadth was healthy too: 52 stocks went up, 53 went down, 41 stayed flat. That's a market where you actually had to pick the right names, not one where the tide lifted everything.

The Week's Big Winners 🚀

The Week's Losers 📉

The stock market is divided into "sectors" — think of them as teams. When you examine how each team performed this week, the overall story becomes clear. 

The sector picture this week mostly continues the pattern: most things up, a few things flat, one quietly loud underperformer. Here's where the money actually went.

🏗️ Industrial Goods +16.89%: The week's MVP.

BUA Cement shares surged 24.8% in four trading days, adding ₦2.7 trillion in market value, after the company posted a Q1 2026 profit of ₦176 billion, more than double the same period last year, with revenue rising 22% to ₦354.98 billion. Lafarge wasn't far behind, riding what analysts described as the best operational turnaround in the cement sector.

The takeaway: Cement is making serious money in Nigeria right now, and the market is rewarding it loudly.

🛢️ Oil & Gas +14.37%

Aradel Holdings put up a clean 20.48% gain, finally crossing ₦2,000 per share. The momentum is genuine: Aradel reported a 46.5% increase in pre-tax profit for FY2025, rising to ₦463.71 billion from ₦316.77 billion the year before, and the stock has now extended its gains to about 90.9% year-to-date with a market capitalisation of about ₦5.55 trillion.

☪️ Lotus Islamic II +13.47%

The Sharia-compliant index had a banner week, helped by the fact that most of its biggest constituents are industrial and consumer names, exactly the corner of the market that ran hot. Year-to-date, Lotus II is up a stunning 94.07%.

🛒 Consumer Goods +3.20% / −0.80%

Mixed bag. The broad Consumer Goods Index rose 3.20%, but the NGX CG Index slipped 0.80%. UACN ripped +27.82% on the back of acquisition-driven revenue, and Livestock Feeds quietly delivered an 18x profit jump from cost optimisation. But not every consumer name shared in the joy, which is why the corporate governance-flavoured CG Index ended slightly red.

📊 NGX 30 +7.35%

The blue-chip benchmark moved roughly in line with the broader market. The headline-grabbers (BUA, Aradel, Lafarge, UACN) all sit in this index, so the NGX 30 was where most of the action concentrated.

🏦 Banking −5.52%

The week's big story. UBA shares dropped 10% in early trading on Monday, as investors punished the bank for its decision to withhold dividends from the 2025 financial year, opening the week at ₦49.50, down from a Friday close of ₦55.00.

By Thursday, the stock had bled all the way to ₦42.75, a one-week loss of 22.27%. UBA's CEO, Oliver Alawuba, attributed the decline in profit, which fell to ₦423 billion from ₦804 billion in 2024, to a substantial one-off provision for bad loans totalling ₦331 billion linked to exiting the CBN's forbearance window, and confirmed the bank intends to resume dividends in 2026.

Access Holdings (−13.74%) and First HoldCo (−13.80%) also took heavy hits as the broader bank narrative turned cautious.

🛡️ Insurance −1.13%

A relatively quiet week, but still in the red. Royal Exchange's 20% drop was the standout, while most other insurers traded in narrow ranges. The sector has been under pressure all year (YtD: −0.24%), making it the only major sector still in negative territory in 2026.

This week was quieter in fixed income. A total of 153,656 bond units worth ₦156.87 million changed hands in 43 deals, a sharp drop from last week's ₦445.83 million across 59 deals. The most-traded bond was TAJSUKS2 (a Sukuk), accounting for almost half of all bond value. FGN Sukuks made up most of the rest. Translation: when you hear "bond market activity," the people active in it this week were mostly trading Islamic bonds and federal government Sukuks.

ETPs (Exchange Traded Products) also slowed, with 5.66 million units worth ₦640.48 million trading, down from ₦916.11 million last week. VETGRIF30 led the pack with ₦100.5 million in value, followed by STANBICETF30 (₦91.6 million) and LOTUSHAL15 (₦90 million).

Quick beginner explainer for anyone new: an ETP is basically a basket of stocks or bonds that trades on the exchange like a single stock. Instead of buying 30 different companies one by one, you can buy a single ETP like VETGRIF30 and instantly own a slice of the NGX 30. Easier, cheaper, less work.

Check out our ranking of the top-performing Funds and Funds managers in Nigeria as of April 17^th 2026.

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Stay patient. Stay diversified. Stay learning — The NairaNote Team ✌️

Data sourced from: Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), SEC Nigeria, Debt Management Office (DMO), and verified financial news outlets. This newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Always do your own research or consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.