Foreign investors withdraw N116.72bn from stock market in six months

The Nigerian Exchange Limited has revealed that foreign investors in the equities market withdrew a total of $116.72bn from Janury to June this year.

According to the NGX Domestic & Foreign Portfolio Investment Report for June 2021, foreign investors invested a total of N105.24bn in the market representing a year-on-year drop by 57.44 per cent from N247.27bn recorded in the corresponding period of 2020.

However, they took out N116.72bn amounting to a 75.78 per cent decrease from N481.93bn in the corresponding period of 2020.

The Net Foreign Portfolio Investment value which is foreign inflows less outflows stood at -N11.48bn as foreign investors withdrew more gains from the exchange than they put in as of June 30.

However, the NGX revealed in the report that foreign transactions in the NGX over 14 years increased by 18.45 per cent from N616bn in 2007 to N729bn as of 2020.

The NGX said, “As at 30 June 2021, total transactions at the nation’s bourse increased by 3.68 per cent from N97.19bn (about $236.33m) in May 2021 to N100.77bn (about $244.88m) in June 2021.

“The performance of the current month when compared to the performance in June 2020 (N128.88bn) revealed that total transactions decreased by 21.81 per cent.

“In June 2021, the total value of transactions executed by domestic investors outperformed transactions executed by foreign investors by circa 54 per cent.

“A further analysis of the total transactions executed between the current and prior month (May 2021) revealed that total domestic transactions increased by 0.59 per cent from N76.90bn in May to N77.35bn in June 2021. “Similarly, total foreign transactions increased by 15.43 per cent from N20.29bn (about $49.33m) to N23.42bn (about $56.91m) between May 2021 and June 2021.”

It added that institutional investors outperformed retail investors by six per cent.