By Chinwendu Obienyi
The total transactions done by investors on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) rose to N1.547 trillion in the first three months of (Q1) of 2024, data analysed by Daily Sun at the weekend, revealed.
According to the Domestic and Foreign Portfolio Investment Report of NGX for the month of March 2024, total transactions at the nation’s bourse increased by 50.48 per cent from N357.88 billion (about $231.70 million) in February 2024 to N538.54 billion (about $404.69 million) in March 2024.
It will be recalled that the total transactions done by investors in January stood at N651.52 billion. This means that the value of transactions done by investors have risen to N1.547 trillion so far this year.
This is against N530.23 billion recorded in 2023 in the same period. The performance of the current month when compared to the performance in March 2023 (N146.22 billion) revealed that total transactions increased significantly by 268.31 per cent.
The report further revealed that the total value of transactions executed by domestic investors outperformed transactions executed by foreign investors by 64 per cent in March. Recall that the participation for domestic participation stood at 92 per cent and 82 per cent, respectively. This means that domestic participation has grown by over 238 per cent.
A further analysis of the total transactions executed between the current and prior month (February 2024) revealed that total domestic transactions increased by 52.11 per cent from N292.07 billion in February to N444.28 billion in March 2024.
Similarly, total foreign transactions increased by 43.23 per cent from N65.81billion (about $42.61 million) to N94.26 billion (about $70.83 million) between February 2024 and March 2024. Domestic inflows and outflows stood at N216.69 billion and N227.59 billion while foreign inflows and outflows stood at N52.66 billion and N41.60 billion during the reporting period.
The report further revealed that retail investors outperformed institutional investors by 0.56 per cent while a comparison of domestic transactions in the current and prior month (February 2024) revealed that retail transactions increased by 37.93 per cent from N161.94 billion in February to N223.37 billion in March 2024.
Also, institutional composition of the domestic market increased by 69.76 per cent from N130.13 billion in February 2024 to N220.91 billion in March 2024.
Over a 16- year period, domestic transactions decreased by 10.94 per cent from N3.556 trillion in 2007 to N3.167 trillion in 2023; whilst foreign transactions also decreased by 33.28 per cent from N616 billion to N411 billion over the same period.
Total domestic transactions accounted for about 89 per cent of the total transactions carried out in 2023, whilst foreign transactions accounted for about 11 per cent of the total transactions in the same period.
The transaction data for 2024 shows that total domestic transactions stood at N1.335 trillion, whilst total foreign transactions stood at N213.18 billion.