Investors participation in stock market drops in May

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) recent report on domestic and foreign portfolio participation in equities trading showed that total equities market transactions decreased in May 2021 compared to the volume of transactions recorded in April 2021 as investors waited on the sidelines given the relative rise in interest rates.

The report also showed that sell-offs by the domestic institutional investors were more

intense, followed by retail investors, but witnessed slower outflows from the foreign

portfolio investors.

The ratio of total domestic transactions to total foreign transactions stood at 79:21 in the month under review, from 82:18 in April 2021.

However, total domestic transactions plunged by 41.70 per cent while total foreign portfolio transactions only contracted by 27.59 per cent.

As total transactions on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) decreased to N97.19 billion in May 2021 from N159.93 billion reported in April 2021, indicating total domestic transactions dropped month-on-month (m-o-m) to N76.90 billion (from N131.91 billion).

The FPI transactions decreased marginally to N20.29 billion in May from N28.02 billion printed in April.

A further breakdown of the FPI transactions in May 2021 showed that foreign portflio inflows fell to N13.01 billion from 18.20 billion while foreign portfolio outflows moderated to N7.28 billion in May from N9.82 billion in April.