Naira Loses 0.67% at I&E, 2.33% at Unofficial FX Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira depreciated by 0.67 per cent or N2.88 on the United States Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Monday, indicating fresh pressure on the local currency after heaving a sigh of relief for a few days.

At the spot market, the local currency was traded at N431.00/$1 yesterday compared with the previous trading session’s rate of N428.12/$1.

According to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange, the inability of FX traders to meet the requests of their customers put the domestic currency under pressure yesterday.

The value of trades recorded at the I&E window increased by $43.75 million or 60.8 per cent yesterday to $115.67 million from the $71.92 million quoted last Friday.

Also, in the peer-to-peer (P2P) segment, the value of the Naira to the Dollar also depreciated by N5 or 0.75 per cent to N674/$1 from N669/$1.

At the parallel market, the Nigerian currency lost N15 or 2.33 per cent against the greenback yesterday, closing at N660/$1 in contrast to the preceding trading day’s exchange rate of N645/$1, according to data harvested by Business Post.

In the interbank segment of the market, the Naira closed flat against the Pound Sterling and the Euro on Monday at N508.02/£1 and N428.22/€1 respectively.

In the cryptocurrency market, five of the 10 digital coins tracked closed in the green territory, while four ended in the red zone, with one standing on the fence.

Dogecoin (DOGE) went up 3.5 per cent to sell at $0.0730, Ethereum (ETH) saw a 2.7 per cent rise to trade at $1,780.17, Litecoin (LTC) appreciated by 0.6 per cent to settle at $62.36, Bitcoin (BTC) grew by 0.3 per cent to $23,848.36, while Ripple (XRP) appreciated by 0.04 per cent to trade at $0.3774.

On the losers’ angle, TerraUSD (UST) shed 4.3 per cent to close at $0.0309, Binance Coin (BNB) recorded a 1.2 per cent depreciation to trade at $325.19, Cardano (ADA) saw its value drop 1.0 per cent to $0.5343, and Solana (SOL) slid by 0.5 per cent to trade at $42.44, with the US Dollar Tether (USDT) unchanged as it closed at $1.00.