- Has requisite range of domestic and foreign, institutional and retail investor participation
- Foreign investors accounted for 36.8 percent of BSE trading in 2021
The Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) surpassed its 2021 target of 100,000 investors and had 100,184 investor accounts as at 31 December 2021, The Business Weekly & Review has established.
According to the BSE, a market should enjoy the participation of both domestic and foreign investors, institutional and retail. Stating this in its recently released annual report for 2021, the BSE notes that it takes a number of initiatives to attract mostly foreign investors. These range from affiliations with international bodies that publish its market information and statistics, international vendors, and international roadshows to sell the BSE investing and listing value proposition.
“Foreign investors generally are very active on the BSE, accounting for more than a third of trading activity over the years,” says the report. “In 2021, they accounted for 36.8 percent of trading activity. Further analysis indicates that foreign investors were net buyers of domestic equities, a positive and bullish sentiment on our market. “Local companies contributed 58.7 percent to trading activity in 2021, emerging as the net sellers of domestic equities. Local individual investors contributed 2.5 percent to trading activity and were net sellers of equities.”
As at the end of 2021, the BSE had 100,184 investor accounts in the Central Securities Depository (CSD) system, majority of which were for individuals. This compares favourably with its 96,136 accounts in 2020 and was a remarkable achievement for the bourse as 100,000 investor accounts was the target for 2021 in accordance with its five-year 2017-2021 strategy.
