Foreign stock investors withdraw N1tn from Nigeria in two months

Over N1tn has been withdrawn from the Nigerian stock market by foreign investors in the past two years, statistics from the Nigerian Stock Exchange have indicated.

The NSE data also showed that the foreign portfolio investors injected N666.40bn into the stock market in the period under review.

The NSE, in its latest domestic and foreign portfolio report, said foreign outflow stood at N481.93bn in 2020, compared with N523.42bn a year before.

The report showed that foreign inflow dropped to N247.27bn in 2020 from N419.13bn in 2019.

Foreign portfolio investment 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), according to the bourse.

The NSE said total domestic transactions accounted for about 74 per cent of the total transactions carried out in 2020, while foreign transactions accounted for about 26 per cent.

Total foreign transactions carried out within the review period were put at N729.21bn, while total domestic transactions were about N1.44tn.

The bourse said, “As of December 31, 2020, total transactions at the nation’s bourse decreased by 15.28 per cent from N317.81bn (about $813.87m) in November 2020 to N269.24bn (about $687.06m) in December 2020.

“In December 2020, the total value of transactions executed by domestic investors outperformed transactions executed by foreign investors by about 48 per cent.”

Institutional investors outperformed retail investors by 38 per cent, according to the report.

It said retail transactions decreased by 42.45 per cent from N106.38bn in November to N61.22bn in December.