An Exploratory Investigation of Foreign Portfolio Investment in Money Market Instruments and the Nigerian Stock Market Performance

Abstract

This paper investigated whether foreign portfolio investment in money market instruments have an influence on the performance of the Nigerian stock market. The study employed ex-postfacto research method using monthly time series data for 11 years between 2007 and 2017. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model was used to specify the influence of foreign portfolio investment in money market instruments on stock market performance. The results of the analysis revealed a significant and positive relationship between foreign portfolio investment in money market instruments and the performance of the Nigerian stock market (t-stat= 2.6110; P= 0.0258<0.05; R2 = 0.77). The study concluded that foreign portfolio investment in money market instruments had significantly predicted stock market performance in Nigeria. Hence, the study recommended that policies formulated towards a more developed stock market should consider importance the influence of foreign portfolio investments in the market