By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian Naira could not sustain its recent gains on Wednesday as it depreciated against the American Dollar in the different segments of the foreign exchange market, including the parallel market, the Investors and Exporters (I&E), and the Peer-2-Peer (P2P).
The Naira lost N2 against the United States currency at the midweek session at the black market to trade at N738/$1 compared with Tuesday’s closing price of N736/$1.
In the spot market, the local currency also depreciated against the greenback during the session by 79 Kobo or 0.17 per cent to settle at N463.67/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s value of N462.88/$1, according to data obtained from FMDQ Securities Exchange.
This decline happened amid a slight jump in the value of forex as the trades recorded in the official market by 5.3 per cent or $4.29 million to $85.19 million from $80.90 million.
Also, in the P2P, the exchange rate of the Naira to the Dollar was N748/$1 yesterday compared with the preceding day’s N742/$1, representing a decline of N6.
However, at the interbank segment of the forex market, the domestic currency closed flat against the Pound Sterling at N573.03/£1 but lost 76 Kobo against the Euro to trade at N502.87/€1 versus the preceding session’s N502.11/€1.
The cryptocurrency market was bullish yesterday as markets found solace in the latest inflation from the US, which indicated that interest rate hikes might be paused.
The US Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.1 per cent in March, down from 0.4 per cent a month previously, and slower than economist forecasts for 0.2 per cent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
On a year-over-year basis, the CPI was higher by 5.0 per cent, down from 6.0 per cent in February and against expectations of 5.2 per cent.
This helped Bitcoin (BTC) to rise by 0.5 per cent to $30,106.06 as Ethereum (ETH) grew by 2.7 per cent to $1,918.08, with Solana (SOL) increasing by 5.5 per cent to $23.95, and Cardano (ADA) expanding by 3.2 per cent to $0.4065.
Further, Dogecoin (DOGE) went northwards by 2.1 per cent to sell at $0.0834, Litecoin (LTC) grew by 0.6 per cent to $92.48, and Binance Coin (BNB) rose by 0.1 per cent to $318.98, while Ripple (XRP) dropped 0.2 per cent to trade at $0.5067, and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) traded flat at $1.00 each.
Dipo Olowookere