Foreign Investors Withdraw N186.6bn from Stock Exchange

By Dipo Olowookere

A total of N186.6 billion was pulled out from the nation’s stock exchange in the first three months of this year by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs).

Data from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and analysed by Business Post revealed that this amount was higher than the N124.2 billion withdrawn from the bourse in the comparative period of 2019.

A month by month check of the foreign outflow showed that in January 2020, the sum of N46.5 billion was taken out from the exchange and the next month, they ejected N52.4 billion and in March, they took out N87.7 billion.

However, in the first quarter of this year, the sum of N65.3 billion was invested in the stock market by non-resident investors, lower than N97.6 billion pumped into equities in the same period of last year.

In the first month of the year, the exchange recorded foreign inflow of N23.8 billion. In February, it had N19.0 billion and in March, N22.5 billion.

Also in the data, the NSE said the total foreign transactions in Q1 2020 stood at N251.9 billion, higher than N221.9 billion in Q1 2019, while the total domestic transactions stood at N375.0 billion, higher than N198.4 billion in the corresponding period of last year.

A further analysis showed that domestic institutional investors dominated the total local transactions, contributing N203.5 billion compared with N171.5 billion from local retail investors.

The data from the NSE further showed that within the first three months of this year, domestic transactions contributed 59.82 percent to the total trades at the exchange, higher than 47.21 percent contributed in the same time of 2019, while foreign transactions contributed 40.18 percent to the total trades in the last quarter, lower than 52.79 percent in the same time of last year.

A breakdown of the offshore investments by months showed that in January, trades worth N70.3 billion were carried and in February, the market had N71.3 billion and N110.2 billion in March.

For domestic trades, equities worth N165.1 billion were traded in January and the next month, N77.2 billion and in March, N132.7 billion.