N148.7bn portfolio investment left Nigeria in Q’1

A sum of N148.71 billion of foreign portfolio investment (FPI) has been repatriated in the first three months of this year, Daily Trust has learnt.

The amount was a major chunk of total transactions by foreign investors at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in Q’1 when compared with total inflow of investment through the capital market in the same period.

According to NSE’s latest poll conducted on trading figures from major custodians and market operators on their on foreign portfolio flows, of the total N211.06 billion foreign transaction value, 70.46 per cent or N148.71 billion was outflow while only N59.11 billion was invested in the economy.

Foreign investors’ activities on the Exchange within the period rose by 75.02 per cent from N120.59 billion in 2016 to the N211.06 billion posted this year.

Similarly, total transactions on the nation’s bourse soared to N454.48 billion last quarters compared to N297.68 billion in the comparative period of 2016.

This improvement was mostly driven by March deals when local investors and their foreign counterparts collectively transacted N285.05 billion as against N74.11 billion and N95.32 billion transaction value in February and January respectively.

Meanwhile, in March 2017, domestic investors outperformed foreign investors by 7.02 per cent and domestic transactions increased by 285.49 per cent from N39.57 billion recorded in February 2017 to N152.54 billion in March.