Foreign investors pulled $584m out of Nigeria’s stock market in October

Foreign investors sold off Nigerian stocks valued at 101.2 billion naira ($583.6 million) in October after a drop in the oil price and the local naira currency, data from the stock exchange showed on Wednesday.
The investors, which accounted for 87.5 percent of the 1.25 trillion naira of stock market transactions in the first ten months of this year, took out some 676.7 billion naira in that period — 14.9 percent more than they invested.
The main share index on Wednesday fell 2.15 percent to 34,145 points, accelerating losses on the bourse to 15.5 percent so far this year. Top decliners Dangote Cement, which accounts for a third of market capitalisation, Oando and Transcorp were all down 5 percent each. Foreign investors increased the pace of outflows in August, selling out of the relatively liquid banking, consumer and oil sectors as the price of Brent crude, the benchmark against which Nigeria’s oil is priced, dropped.
The plunge in the oil price has put Nigeria’s currency under pressure and dampened appetite for assets in Africa’s biggest economy and chief oil exporter, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly to try to prop up the naira. The currency closed at 173.48 against the dollar on Wednesday, increasing losses to 8.5 percent so far this year, as dollar supply dried up and the central bank made no fresh intervention, dealers said. The October sell-off was similar to February’s, when funds cashed in 103.5 billion naira worth of stocks, after the president suspend the central bank governor, which sent the stock market into a tailspin.