The foreign investment in the Nigerian Exchange dipped by about 9.73 per cent in January to N15.78bn compared to N17.48bn in December 2023.
According to the latest Domestic and Foreign Portfolio Investment Report of the NGX, it rose by 60.37 per cent year-on-year.
The report showed that while the total foreign transactions on the local bourse increased by 10.95 per cent from N47.87bn (about $53.26m) to N53.11bn (about $39.13m) between December 2023 and January 2024, the increase was mostly on the outflow side, which rose to N37.33bn from N30.39bn in the previous month.
Nigeria has seen a dip in foreign inflow of capital as investors worried about their funds being trapped due to the persistent dollar scarcity in the country.
Stakeholders had expected more foreign investors to come in as they reacted to the effects of the twin policies of fuel subsidy removal and harmonisation of the segments of the foreign exchange market.
On a general basis, trading figures from market operators on their Domestic and Foreign Portfolio Investment flows showed that at the end of January, “Total transactions at the nation’s bourse increased by 89.45 per cent from N343.90bn (about $382.59m) in December 2023 to N651.52bn (about $479.99m) in January 2024.
“The performance of the current month when compared to the performance in January 2023 (N195.10bn) revealed that total transactions increased significantly by 233.94 per cent. In January 2024, the total value of transactions executed by domestic investors outperformed transactions executed by Foreign Investors by circa 84 per cent.”
A further breakdown indicated that the total total domestic transactions increased by 102.15 per cent from N296.03bn to N598.41bn between January and December 2023.
The report also stated, “Institutional Investors outperformed retail Investors by four per cent. A comparison of domestic transactions in the current and prior month (December 2023) revealed that retail transactions increased by 211.73 per cent from N91.61bn in December to N285.58bn in January 2024. Similarly, the institutional composition of the domestic market increased by 53.03 per cent from N204.42bn in December 2023 to N312.83bn.”
For 2023, total domestic transactions accounted for about 89 per cent of the total transactions carried while foreign transactions accounted for about 11 per cent.
This year, transaction data showed that total domestic transactions were about N598.41bn, while total foreign transactions were valued at N53.11bn.
