Foreign investors at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) have again overshadowed local investors as evidenced in the year-to-date (YtD) equity deals where they accounted for 60.12 percent against 39.88 percent by domestic investors.
Recent data showing domestic and foreign portfolio participation in equity trading indicated that as of end of March 2015, foreigners accounted for 55.73 percent while domestic investors controlled 44.27 percent.
This was a reasonable upside in favour of the local investors when compared with 27.39 percent in February 2015, against 72.61 percent in the hands of foreigners.
Total foreign inflow since this year was N150.53 billion while total foreign outflow was N185.09 billion. Total transactions by both local and foreign investors was valued at N558.23 billion.
The Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) outflow includes sales transactions or liquidation of portfolio investments through the stock market, while the FPI inflow includes purchase transactions on the NSE (equities only).
On a monthly basis, the NSE polls trading figures from major custodians and market operators on their foreign portfolio investments.
Information on the retail and institutional components of the total domestic transactions in March is based on data obtained from about 83 percent of active dealing members of the Exchange.
Domestic transactions at the nation’s bourse, which was N50.54 billion at the end of February 2015, increased to N81.46 billion (about $0.41bn) at the end of March 2015, up 61.18 percent from February 2015.
Domestic investors conceded about 11.46 percent of trading to foreign investors as foreign transactions decreased from 72.61 percent to 55.73 percent, while domestic transactions increased from 27.39 percent to 44.27 percent over the same period.
In comparison to the same period in 2014, total FPI transactions decreased by 21.44 percent, while the total domestic transactions increased by 124.47 percent. FPI outflows outpaced inflows which was consistent with the same period in 2014. Overall, there was a 10.30 percent increase in total transactions in comparison to the same period in 2014.
Iheanyi Nwachukwu
