Total inflows into Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) have risen by 40.2 per cent to a five-month high of $3.04 billion.
Gatekeepers News reports that latest report on NAFEM obtained on Sunday showed that the positive overall performance of inflows was driven mainly by increases in foreign portfolio and direct investments.
Also, Nigeria’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves at the weekend rose for the ninth consecutive week to $39.77 billion, an increase of $326.64 million during the week.
Data obtained from FMDQ Securities Exchange showed that total inflows into NAFEM rose from $2.17 billion in September 2024 to $3.04 billion in October 2024, an increase of 40 per cent and its highest figure in five months.
The increase was driven broadly by stronger inflows from foreign sources, compared to declines in domestic sources.
Inflows from foreign sources rose by 292.7 per cent from $345.50 million in September 2024 to $1.37 billion in October 2024, representing 44.6 per cent of total inflows during the period and the highest level in seven months.
Inflows from foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) grew by 510.9 per cent, sheoing the increasing involvement of foreign investors in the Nigerian market. Inflows from foreign direct investments (FDIs) also rose by 44.6 per cent during the period.
Collections from local sources, which accounted for 55.4 per cent of total inflows however dropped for the second consecutive month, from $1.82 billion in September to $1.69 billion in October, a drop of 7.5 per cent.
There were declines across most segments of local collections, as individuals dropped by 30.6 per cent, from CBN by 14.3 per cent while collections from non-bank corporates dipped by 8.6 per cent.
Inflows from other corporate segments dropped by 15.1 per cent. Meanwhile, collections from exporters and importers inched up by 0.6 per cent.
With its ninth consecutive increase at the weekend, Nigeria’s forex reserves have risen by $6.858 billion so far this year and currently standing at their highest level in more than a year. The nation’s forex reserves had ended 2023 at $32.912 billion.
According to Market sources; the continuing accretion was due to improved investors’ confidence in the Nigerian market.
The increase at the weekend was due partly to purchases from foreign portfolio investors, who are currently trading at their highest turnover in five years.
More than a double in foreign transactions and sustained upbeat by domestic investors pushed total transactions at the Nigerian stock market to its highest level by the third quarter of 2024.
Official trading report showed that total transactions at the stock market rose to N3.97 trillion in the first nine months of this year, the highest third-quarter turnover according to available official records of the market.
This year’s performance represents a new record against the market’s turnover in third quarter of 2023, when the market had set a high of N2.71 trillion. The closest records were in 2018 and 2014 when the market recorded N2.01 trillion and N2.04 trillion respectively.
The proportion of participation by FPIs increased from 9.51 per cent in third quarter of 2023 to 17.56 per cent in third quarter 2024, the highest in the past three years.
Total foreign transactions at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) grew by 170.1 per cent from N258.02 billion in third quarter of 2023 to N696.88 billion in third quarter 2024, the highest in six years.
