Domestic investors strengthen control of Nigeria’s equities trading

Nigeria’s domestic investors (retail and institutional) have further strengthened their control of the local equities market trading, summary of the market’s transactions at first-quarter (Q1) to March 31 shows. The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on a monthly basis polls trading figures from market operators on their domestic and Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) flows.

In first-quarter, foreign investors who years ago were movers of the market controlled only 18.62 percent of Nigeria’s equities trading while 79.56percent of the market’s trading in same period was by domestic investors.

Out of the N692.20billion worth of equities traded in Q1, only N128.91billion was by foreign investors while N563.29billion was by domestic investors.

Domestic retail investors were responsible for N265.62billion worth of trading while their institutional counterparts traded equities worth N215.19billion. Foreign inflow into the market was N55.33billion in Q1 while foreign outflow was N73.58billion in same period.

As at March 31, 2022, total transactions at the nation’s bourse increased by 0.93percent from N183.56billion (about $441.61million) in February 2022 to N185.26billion (about $445.25million) in March 2022.

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The performance of the current month when compared to the performance in March 2021 (N228.49billion) revealed that total transactions decreased by 18.92percent. In March 2022, the total value of transactions executed by Domestic Investors outperformed transactions executed by Foreign Investors by circa 54percent.

The total transactions executed between March 2022 and February 2022 revealed that total domestic transactions increased by 3.59percent from N138.13billion in February to N143.09billion in March 2022. In contrast, total foreign transactions decreased by 7.17percent from N45.43billion (about $109.30million) to N42.17billion (about $101.36million) between February 2022 and March 2022.

Institutional Investors outperformed Retail Investors by 16percent; while a comparison of domestic transactions in the current and prior month (February 2022) revealed that retail transactions decreased by 1.27percent from N61.39billion in February 2022 to N60.61billion in March 2022.

However, the institutional composition of the domestic market increased by 7.48percent, from N76.74billion in February 2022 to N82.48billion in March 2022.