The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said that the inflow of foreign portfolio investment into the country grew by 25 per cent in 2011 to N478.6 billion.
Ms Arunma Oteh, SEC Director-General, disclosed this in Lagos on Tuesday while analysing the performance of the capital market in 2011.
She said that the inflow of foreign portfolio investment was N382.1 billion in 2010.
Oteh said that the positive fundamentals of listed companies and under-valuation of many stocks led to increase in foreign portfolio participation in the capital market.
According to her, foreign interest in market grew with over 60 per cent of the investment driven by the foreign institutional investors.
She said that equities market capitalisation during the period under review declined by 16 per cent to N6.5 trillion against the N7.9 trillion posted in 2010.
Oteh said that the All-Share Index also dropped by 16 per cent to close at 20,730.63 against the 24,770.52 recorded in 2010.
The director-general said that the total trading volume dropped to N644.2 billion or 19 per cent from N797.5 billion recorded in the previous year.
She said that the value of average daily transactions declined to N2.7 billion against N3.3 billion posted in 2010.
Oteh said that in spite of the decline, the capital market out-performed a number of markets around the world.
She said that China stock market declined by 22.8 per cent, Brazil 16.3 per cent, India market dropped by 22.6 per cent, while Argentina recorded a decline of 30.3 per cent.
Oteh said that the local bond market witnessed significant activities in 2011 as the Federal Government issued 28 new tranches of outstanding bonds valued at N791.3 trillion.
She said that N183.8 billion worth of new fixed income securities was issued by states and corporate entities, adding that Benue, Niger, Delta and Ekiti floated bonds during the period.
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