By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira depreciated by 0.2 per cent or 83 kobo against the United States Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange market on Monday, closing at N421.33/$1 compared with last Friday’s exchange rate of N420.50/$1.
The Nigerian Naira declined in value despite the turnover for the day closing low at $46.07 million, according to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange.
The inability of FX traders to meet the needs of their customers contributed to the weakening of the local currency yesterday as the nation battles forex shortage amid an increase in the prices of crude oil benchmarks on the global market.
It was not a different story in the peer-to-peer (P2P) segment of the FX market, where the Naira also depreciated to the Dollar by N1 or 0.16 per cent to close at N618/$1 compared to the N617/$1 it was sold in the previous session.
In the interbank segment of the market, the Naira weakened against the British currency – the Pound Sterling by N4.94 to wrap up at N510.13/£1 in contrast to N505.19/£1 in the preceding session and against the Euro, the local currency lost N3.81 to sell for N436.15/€1 versus the last rate of N432.34/€1.
A look at the cryptocurrency market indicated that after last week’s stormy weak trade, Bitcoin (BTC) was able to hold above $20,000 on Monday as it gained 4.1 per cent to trade at $20,860.39.
Solana (SOL) appreciated yesterday by 14.5 per cent to trade at $36.97, TerraUSD (UST) recovered by 7.1 per cent to quote at $0.0844, Binance Coin (BNB) recorded a 6.6 per cent appreciation to trade at $222.03, Ethereum (ETH) saw a 6.5 per cent rise to settle at $1,146.74, and Cardano (ADA) grew by 5.9 per cent to $0.4968.
Further, Dogecoin (DOGE) went up by 5.4 per cent to sell at $0.0614, Litecoin (LTC) flew by 3.2 per cent to $53.83, Ripple (XRP) appreciated by 2.9 per cent to trade at $0.3266, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) improved its value by 0.02 per cent to $0.999.
Modupe Gbadeyanka