Foreign investors pulled out a total of N173.32bn from the Nigerian stock market from January to October, official data obtained on Monday show.
The Nigerian Exchange Limited, in its latest domestic and foreign portfolio investment report, revealed that foreign investors injected N156.30bn into the stock market in the 10-month period.
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 NGX (equities only), according to the bourse.
Total transactions at the nation’s bourse increased by 80.34 per cent from N118.15bn in September to N213.07bn (about $513.31m) in October, but fell by 13 per cent when compared to the N244.90bn recorded in October last year.
The NGX said the total value of transactions executed by domestic investors in October 2021 outperformed transactions executed by foreign investors by about 60 per cent.
It said total domestic transactions increased by 81.93 per cent from N93.80bn in September to N170.65bn in October, while total foreign transactions increased by 74.21 per cent from N24.35bn (about $58.91m) to N42.42bn (about $102.21m).
Institutional investors outperformed retail investors by 32 per cent in October, according to the NGX.
It said retail transactions increased by 83.69 per cent from N31.76bn in September to N58.34bn in October, while the institutional composition of the domestic market increased by 81.03 per cent from N62.04bn to N112.31bn.
The Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, said recently that the profit-taking activities of foreign and domestic institutional investors in the Nigerian stock market had created an excessive risk premium.
He said to usher in the return of foreign and domestic institutional participation, all government agencies and regulators in the financial system, among other key stakeholders, must work with the NGX to tackle the excessive risk premium within the market.