Business
Foreign Investors Contribute 70% Of NSE Daily Trading Value – Oteh
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has disclosed
that foreign investors contribute about 70 per cent of daily trading value of
equities at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
The Director-General of the commission, Ms Arunma Oteh said
at the post media briefing of the Capital Market Committee in Lagos, that
retail investors’ contributes about 30 per cent of the daily value of the
market equities.
Oteh said that the drop in foreign investors’ domination of
the market from the initial 80 per cent after the capital market crisis was a
significant index of growth.
She said that contrary to uninformed concerns about the level
of foreign investors’ participation in the Nigerian bourse, SEC sees it as a
challenge and a window for the stimulation of domestic investors.
According to her, the commission will reinvigorate its
national investor education to ensure increase in retail investors’
participation and creation of sustainable pool of local savings through capital
market.
She urged domestic investors to embrace the collective
investment schemes to broaden their investment and protect it against market
fluctuations.
The director-general said that the Nigerian capital market
currently have about five million retail investors with less than 250,000 of
them investing through the schemes.
Oteh projected also that the new listing segment of the
market would witness a boost in first quarter of 2013 with the listing of new
companies from agriculture and oil/ gas sub-sectors.
She said that the move by the Federal Government to
privatise electricity generation and distribution companies would offer
Nigerians the opportunity to participate in the market.
Mr Ade Bajomo, Executive Director, Market Operations of NSE,
said that over 500 small and medium enterprises were discussing with the
Exchange on peculiar listing requirements.
Bajomo said that the Exchange would identify the rightful companies
to list after the exercise to ensure that they remain active post listing.
He said that new listing was of priority to the management,
adding that more companies would list as the market continued to grow.