By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira closed on a strong foot against the United States Dollar on Friday, gaining 4.3 per cent or N33.43 at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange market to sell at N743.07 versus the N776.50/$1 it closed on Thursday.
The Nigerian currency was strengthened at the spot market despite a significant rise in forex turnover during the last trading session of the week.
Data from FMDQ Securities Exchange showed that trades worth $121.08 million were executed yesterday compared with the $44.43 million transacted a day earlier, indicating an increase of 172.5 per cent or $76.65 million.
However, in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) forex window, the value of the Nigerian currency closed downward as it lost N2 against the Dollar on Friday to sell at N882/$1 versus Thursday’s exchange rate of N880/$1.
Also, in the parallel market, the domestic currency lost N9 against the greenback to quote at N890/$1, in contrast to the preceding day’s value of N881/$1.
In the official market, the local currency appreciated against the Pound Sterling yesterday by N15.57 to wrap at N958.99/£1 compared with the previous day’s N974.56/£1 and improved its value against the Euro by N11.57 to trade at N827.70/€1 versus Thursday’s rate of N839.27/€1.
A look at the cryptocurrency market showed that the ecosystem gave up its gains on Friday, with Bitcoin (BTC) earlier falling into the $28,900 level in the afternoon before recovering something.
However, it still lost 0.5 per cent to sell at $29,042.48, Ethereum (ETH) weakened by 0.3 per cent to $1,829.27, Ripple (XRP) shrank by 6.7 per cent to $0.6208, Solana (SOL) depreciated by 1.3 per cent to sell at $22.69, and Litecoin (LTC) fell by 1.1 per cent to $82.07.
Further, Cardano (ADA) recorded a 0.8 per cent loss to $0.2913, Binance Coin (BNB) declined by 0.5 per cent to $240.70, while Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated by 1.0 per cent to $0.0749, with Binance USD (BUSD) and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) trading flat at $1.00 apiece.
Dipo Olowookere