- Foreign Transactions in Stock Market Rise by 58%
Foreign portfolio investors’ transactions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange rose by 58.87 per cent in March from N83.22bn in February.
Total transactions at the nation’s bourse increased by 28.50 per cent from N212.05bn recorded in February to N272.48bn (about $0.89bn) in March, the latest data from the NSE showed.
The cumulative transactions from January to March 2018 increased by 48.29 per cent from N454.48bn recorded in the same period of 2017 to N878.97bn.
The NSE said, “Domestic investors outperformed foreign investors by 2.96 per cent in March 2018. Total domestic transactions increased by 8.88 per cent from N128.83bn in February to N140.27bn in March 2018.
“Foreign transactions increased more significantly by 58.87 per cent from N83.22bn to N132.21bn within the same period.”
It added that there was a 55.29 per cent increase in foreign inflows from N44.89bn in February to N69.71bn in March, while foreign outflows also increased by 63.06 per cent from N38.33bn to N62.50bn within the same period.
The bourse stated, “The institutional composition of the domestic market increased by 19.97 per cent from N76.08bn in February, to N91.27bn in March 2018. However, the retail composition decreased by 7.11 per cent from N52.75bn to N49bn within the same period.
“This indicates a higher participation by institutional investors over their retail counterparts.”
The data showed that since 2011, foreign transactions had consistently outperformed domestic transactions.
The NSE said, “However, domestic transactions marginally outperformed foreign transactions in 2016 and 2017, accounting for 52 per cent of the total transaction value in 2017.
“Also, foreign transactions, which were N1.539tn in 2014, declined to N518bn in 2016, but increased significantly by 133 per cent to N1.208tn in 2017, thereby accounting for about 48 per cent of total transactions in 2017.
“Over an 11-year period, domestic transactions have decreased by 62.46 per cent from N3.556tn in 2007 to N1.335tn in 2017. However, there was a significant increase in 2017 by 111 per cent from N634bn recorded in 2016.”
