Foreign portfolio transactions on the Nigerian Exchange Limited nosedived by 90.99% in April 2025, dropping to N63.07 billion from N699.89 billion in March, according to the NGX’s latest Domestic and Foreign Portfolio Investment report.

The steep decline follows a March surge driven by large block trades that inflated foreign inflows, which failed to materialize in April, reducing foreign activity to just 13.08% of total market turnover.

Overall market transactions fell 56.79% to N482.04 billion ($301.90 million) in April from N1.115 trillion ($725.86 million) in March, based on Central Bank of Nigeria exchange rates.

Despite the slump in foreign participation, domestic investors propped up the market, with transactions edging up 0.81% to N418.97 billion, accounting for 86.92% of total turnover.

Institutional investors led domestic activity, with transactions rising 8.77% to N237.66 billion, while retail transactions dropped 8.02% to N181.31 billion.

For the first four months of 2025, total transactions reached N2.714 trillion, with domestic investors contributing N1.837 trillion (67.68%) and foreign investors N877.12 billion (32.32%).

This marks a significant increase from 2024’s N1.894 trillion for the same period, including N1.560 trillion domestic and N334.01 billion foreign transactions.

The report also highlighted long-term growth, with domestic transactions rising 33.15% from N3.556 trillion in 2007 to N4.735 trillion in 2024, and foreign transactions increasing 38.31% from N616 billion to N852 billion over the same period.