FOREIGN PORTFOLIO INVESTMENT AND CAPITAL MARKET DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The poor performance of Nigeria’s stock market is a source of concern and has generated contentious debates among the stakeholders in the Nigerian Stock Exchange Market (NSE). This study investigates the impact of foreign portfolio investment on the performance of the stock market in Nigeria for the period of 30years (1989-2018). Secondary and time-series data were used and the variables such as; stock market capitalization proxy for capital market performance, portfolio investment, exchange rate and inflation rate were sourced from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistical bulletin, 2019 To avoid spurious results, unit-root test and regression analysis were used as the tools of data analysis. Findings show that all the predictors have no significant impact on stock market capitalization except the exchange rate that is statistically significant at 5% critical value. However, the f-statistic results (18.83660) indicate that the combine variables have a significant impact on stock market performance in Nigeria. It was therefore concluded that foreign portfolio investment if properly encouraged serve as a Potent variaable for enhancing the performance of the stock market in Nigeria. The study recommends that, there is a need for the government through the central bank of Nigeria to implement a policies that will increase the level and size of market capitalization in the capital market. Such an increase in the capital market will provide the necessary funds for investors for further investments thereby increasing productivity in Nigeria.