Nigeria attracts N216bn FPI in six months

The Nigerian economy has attracted a total of N216 billion foreign portfolio investment (FPI) in the first six months of this year (H1’17), NATIONAL ACCORD has reported.

According to the Abuja-based online newspaper, this is contained in a document obtained from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday, showing the result of monthly polls carried out by the Exchange on the FPI flows of major custodians and operators in the Nigerian stock market.

Quoting figures from  the document, the paper said there was a thin margin between the foreign inflow and outflow recorded during the period from January to June, even as the inflow slightly outpaced outflow which stood at N214.26 billion.

Meanwhile, total transactions at the nation’s bourse for the first half of the year increased by 49.78 per cent from N624.41 billion recorded in same period of 2016 to N935.26 billion in 2017.

Of the total activities on the Exchange, domestic investors outperformed foreign investors by 7.82 per cent.

While transactions by the locals stood at N505.03 billion, deals by foreign investors were valued at N430.23 billion, showing that the market has not yet recovered fully from the exodus of foreigners it witnessed in recent years.

In comparison to the first half of 2016, total FPI transactions increased by 59.81 per cent from N269.22 billion to N430.23, whilst the total domestic transactions increased by 42.19 per cent from N505.03 billion to N355.19 billion.

It would be recalled that since 2011, foreign transactions have consistently outperformed domestic transactions, until 2016 when the situation reversed.

Due to many unfavourable economic headwinds the Africa’s largest economy faced last year, most foreign investors withdrew their participation from the market and consequently,   domestic transactions marginally outperformed foreign transactions in 2016, accounting for 55 per cent of the total transaction volume in the year.

Also, foreign transactions have further declined by 66.34 per cent from N1.539 trillion in 2014 to N518b in 2016, representing about 45 per cent of total transactions in last year.