STOCK MARKET: FOREIGN TRANSACTIONS DROP BY N66.24BN

The Nigerian Stock Exchange recorded a decline of N66.24bn in foreign portfolio transactions last month amid political uncertainties and rise in interest rates in the United States.

The July 2018 Domestic and Foreign Portfolio Participation in Equity Trading report, which was released on Monday, showed that total transactions at the nation’s bourse reduced by 22.21 per cent from N187.78bn in June to N146.07bn in July.

It showed that the cumulative transactions from January to July 2018 increased by 54.38 per cent to N1.743tn from N1.129tn recorded in the same period last year.

Domestic investors outperformed foreign investors by 50.48 per cent in July as total domestic transactions increased by 28.72 per cent from N85.38bn in June to N109.9bn in July.

The report read in part, “The domestic transactions were largely driven by the 55.48 per cent increase in the retail domestic participation, which recorded N29.12bn in June 2018 and N65.42bn in July 2018.

“There was a significant decrease of 64.68 per cent in total foreign transactions from N102.41bn in June 2018 to N36.17bn in July 2018. Foreign outflows reduced by 69.99 per cent from N54.45bn to N16.34bn while foreign inflows also reduced by 58.65 per cent from N47.96bn to N19.83bn over the same period.”

(Punch)