By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira appreciated at the Peer-to-Peer (P2P), Investors and Exporters (I&E) and the parallel market windows of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Friday on the back of an improvement in the supply of forex to the financial markets by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The Nigerian currency gained N5 or 0.72 per cent against the United States currency during the trading day to settle at N691/$1 in contrast to the previous session’s value of N696/$1.
Also, in the official market segment, the local currency appreciated by 63 Kobo or 0.15 per cent against the Dollar to close at N429.62/$1 versus Thursday’s exchange rate of N430.25/$1.
It was a similar outcome in the black market, where the domestic currency was strengthened against the greenback during the session byN3 or 0.44 per cent to quote at N677/$1 compared with the previous day’s value of N680/$1.
In the interbank segment of the market, the Naira, however, maintained stability against the British Pound Sterling and the Euro at N513.10/£1 and N433.78/€1 respectively.
Data from FMDQ Securities Exchange showed that on Friday, the value of FX at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Fixing (NAFEX) went down by 20.7 per cent or $12.06 million to $46.31 million from $58.37 million and this helped the strengthening of the Naira at the I&E at the close of business.
Meanwhile, the digital currency market was bullished during the session as nine of the 10 coins tracked by Business Post pointed northwards, with the US Dollar Tether (USDT) closing flat at $1.00.
Solana (SOL) recorded the highest gain of 10.7 per cent to sell at $47.70, Cardano (ADA) grew by 6.4 per cent to trade at $0.5639, Ethereum (ETH) went up by 6.1 per cent to $2,004.73, while Litecoin (LTC) surged by 4.3 per cent to trade at $64.31.
Further, Dogecoin (DOGE) increased by 4.2 per cent to $0.0739, Shiba Inu (SHIB) appreciated by 3.1 per cent to $0.00001272, Bitcoin (BTC) added 2.9 per cent to quote at $24,670.19, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 1.8 per cent rise to trade at $0.3833, while Binance Coin (BNB) rose by 1.5 per cent to sell for $328.85.