Total domestic investors’ participation on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, plunged by approximately 17 per cent in March 2016 as apathy equity investment rocked in the Nigerian Bourse.
Figures released by the NSE, over the weekend showed that at the end of March, domestic investors reduced their stake to N61.87 billion, indicating 63.52 per cent participation from N74.49 billion they committed in the market in February this year.
This represents a total decline of 17 per cent during the period. Similarly, foreign portfolio investors’ participation took a downward trend falling from N42.78 billion, representing 36.48 per cent participation to N34.44 billion, which represents 35.76 per cent participation level.
Generally, total transactions at the nation’s bourse decreased by 17.87 per cent from N117.27 billion recorded in February 2016 to N96.31 (about $0.49 billion) in March 2016. In comparison to the same period in 2015, total transactions decreased by 47.66 per cent from the N184.02 recorded in March 2015.
Analysts have said that investors are increasingly finding investment in risky assets (equities) more unattractive following the delayed take-off of the new government’s economic policies, depletion in the foreign reserve occasioned by dwindling crude oil price and the exchange rate crisis among others.
