Naira Firms to N744.07/$1 at I&E, N795/$1 at P2P, Parallel Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira opened the week stronger against the US Dollar in the official FX window, the Investors and Exporters (I&E), on Monday, July 10, appreciating by 4.3 per cent or N32.83 to trade at N744.07/$1 compared with last Friday’s value of N776.90$1.

According to data obtained from FMDQ Securities Exchange, the turnover for the trading session increased by 33.06 per cent or $24.27 million to $97.69 million from $73.42 million.

However, in the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) segment of the foreign exchange market, the local currency depreciated against the greenback yesterday by N6.52 or 0.83 per cent to settle at N795.40/$1, in contrast to the preceding session’s rate of N788.88/$1.

Similarly, the domestic currency lost N7 or 0.89 per cent against the American currency during the session to quote at N795/$1 versus the previous trading day’s value of N788/$1.

Business Post gathered that the Nigerian Naira came under pressure in the parallel market yesterday because of an increase in the demand for forex for school resumption in September. Some customers have begun to buy foreign currencies beforehand to avoid last minute rush.

It was not different for the Naira against the Pound Sterling at the official market as it shed N34.30 to sell at N1,000.64/£1 versus its previous rate of N966.34/£1 and against the Euro, it weakened by N35.14 to close at N861.96/€1 compared with the previous session’s N826.82/€1.

As for the cryptocurrency market, a slew of impressive United States macroeconomic data releases amid worrying multiple speeches from Federal Reserve officials helped give the market some direction.

Bitcoin (BTC) added 1.1 per cent to sell at $30,452.38, Ethereum (ETH) grew by 0.9 per cent to $1,878.16, Binance Coin (BNB) jumped 5.4 per cent to $246.78, Solana (SOL) appreciated by 3.2 per cent to trade at $21.81, and Litecoin (LTC) also improved its value by 3.2 per cent to $96.82.

Further, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 1.8 per cent rise to quote at $0.4762, Cardano (ADA) increased by 1.4 per cent to settle at $0.2899, and Dogecoin (DOGE) made a 0.6 per cent appreciation to sell at $0.0652, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.