Amid uncertainty and other macroeconomic challenges, total domestic transactions on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) for the first quarter (Q1) of 2023 closed at N986.21 billion.
The prolonged FX scarcity, inflation among others have been taking their toll on the Nigerian economy and the capital market which is the barometer of the economy has seen mixed sentiments in transactions in the month under review.
Data obtained from the Domestic and Foreign Portfolio Investment Report for the month of March 2023 showed that the total domestic transactions done on the NGX’s platform stood at N476.52 billion. The total domestic transactions by investors done in the month of January and February 2023 were N170.20 billion and N339.49 billion, hence the total domestic transactions done in three months rose to N986.21 billion.
Furthermore, the total value of transactions executed by domestic investors outperformed
transactions executed by foreign investors by 88 per cent. Similarly, institutional investors outperformed retail Investors by 22 per cent. A comparison of domestic transactions in the current and prior month (February 2023) revealed that retail transactions increased by 51.85 per cent from N34.79 billion in February to N52.83 billion in March 2023
However, the total transactions at the nation’s bourse decreased by 22.60 per cent from N188.91billion (about $409.72 million) in February 2023 to N146.22 billion (about $317.09 million) in March 2023. The performance of the current month when compared to the performance in March 2022 (N185.26 billion) revealed that total transactions decreased by 21.07 per cent.
A further analysis of the total transactions executed between the current and prior month (February 2023) revealed that total domestic transactions decreased by 19.06 per cent from N169.29 billion in February to N137.03 billion in March 2023. Similarly, total foreign transactions decreased more significantly by 53.16 per cent from N19.62 billion (about $42.51 million) to N9.19billion (about $19.94 million) between February 2023 and March 2023.
Over a sixteen (16) year period, domestic transactions decreased by 45.30 per cent from N3.556 trillion in 2007 to N1.945 trillion in 2022 whilst foreign transactions also decreased by 38.47 per cent from N616 billion to N379 billion over the same period.
Also, total domestic transactions accounted for about 84 per cent of the total transactions carried out in 2022, whilst foreign transactions accounted for about 16 per cent of the total transactions in the same period.
Sunnews