Foreign investors cash out N75bn from stock market in January 2018
Reporter
Foreign portfolio investors in the Nigeria stock market sold N74.64 billion of their investment in the month of January 2018.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange polled trading figures from major custodians and market operators on their foreign portfolio investment (FPI) flows as at the end of January 2018 indicate that foreign inflows decreased by 47.10 percent from N173.43 billion in December 2017 to N91.75 billion in January 2018 while foreign outflows increased by 125.84 percent from N33.05 billion to N74.64 billion within the same period.
Aruna Kabira, a stockbroker, attributed the increase in foreign investors outflow in January to massive gains recorded by many stocks in 2017. According to him, the increased outflows do not mean the portfolio investors withdrew from the market, that they merely took the opportunity of high share prices to repatriate gains.
Total transactions at the nation’s bourse during the period decreased by 17.96 percent from N480.80 billion recorded in December 2017 to N394.44 billion (about $1.29 billion) in January 2018.
However, when compared to corresponding period in 2017, total transactions increased significantly by 313.81 percent from N95.32 billion recorded in 2017.
In the period under review, foreign investors conceded about 15.64 percent of trading to domestic investors as total foreign transactions decreased by 19.42 percent from N206.48 billion recorded in December 2017 to N166.39 billion in January 2018.
However, total domestic transactions decreased by 16.87 percent from N274.32 billion to N228.05 billion within the same period.
Meanwhile, institutional investors’ composition of the domestic market accounted for 53 percent while retail composition accounted for 47 percent for the month under review, indicating a higher participation by institutional investors over their retail counterparts.
In prior years of 2016 and 2017, domestic transactions outperformed foreign transactions. In 2017 alone domestic transactions accounted for 52 percent of total transaction value.