FY’15: Domestic institutional investors reduce equities bet by N215bn

In Nigerian stock market, domestic institutional investors known for undertaking investment in equities reduced their exposure in stocks by about N215billion last year.

Looking at the recently released figures on domestic and foreign portfolio participation in equity trading – December 2015, domestic investors reduced their 2015 stake in equities to N497.86billion from a record high of N712.73billion in the corresponding year 2014.

Likewise, domestic retail investors reduced their equities wager by N41.2billion from N423.90billion in 2014 to N382.70billion in 2015.

On a monthly basis, the Nigerian Stock Exchange polls trading figures from major custodians and market operators on their foreign portfolio investments (FPI).

The NSE said information on the retail and institutional components of the total domestic transactions in December is based on data obtained from about 96percent of active dealing members of the Exchange.

Total foreign transactions decreased by 33.39% from N1.538trillion recorded at the end of 2014 to N1.025trillion at the end of 2015, while total domestic transactions decreased by 22.53% from N1.136trillion recorded at the end of 2014 to N880.56 billion recorded at the end of 2015.

Total transactions at the nation’s bourse decreased by 41.72% from N189.72 billion recorded in January to N110.56 billion (about $56 million) in December 2015.

This represents a decrease of 13.49% from N127.8 billion recorded in November.  Month-on-month, the total domestic transactions increased by 7.26%, from N55.2billion in November to N59.21billion in December 2015. In comparison to December 2014, total domestic transactions decreased from N133.6billion to N59.21billion.

The institutional composition of the domestic market which was about 47.17% in November increased to 67.86% at the end of December, whilst the retail composition decreased from 52.83% to 32.14% in the same period. In comparison to December 2014, institutional composition decreased from 72.99% to 67.86%, whilst the retail composition increased from 27.01% to 32.14% in the same period.

Iheanyi Nwachukwu