Naira Appreciates to N738/$1 at I&E Amid 138.6% Surge in FX Trades

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigerian Naira eased recent pressure against the US Dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) arm of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Wednesday, August 30.

The Naira appreciated against the greenback by 4.8 per cent or N37.16 to sell for N738.18/$1, in contrast to the preceding day’s N775.34/$1, according to data obtained from the FMDQ Securities Exchange.

Data showed that the value of forex transactions in the spot market surged by 138.6 per cent or $98.83 million to $170.15 million from the $71.32 million recorded in the preceding session.

However, in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) window, the local currency lost N3 against the Dollar yesterday to trade at N920/$1, in contrast to the N917/$1 it was sold in the preceding session.

Also, in the parallel market, the Nigerian currency depreciated against its American counterpart by N10 during the day to close at N915/$1 compared with Tuesday’s closing price of N905/$1.

In the official market, the Naira traded flat against the Pound Sterling at N975.01/£1 and gained N26.58 against the Euro to end the session at N811.89/€1 versus 838.47/€1.

The cryptocurrency market witnessed a pullback from recent gains as investors mulled the implications of Grayscale’s court victory over the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

On Tuesday, a federal appeals court yesterday ordered the SEC to review its rejection of investment manager Grayscale’s bid to convert its $14 billion Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), spurring an immediate rally in digital asset prices and crypto-related stocks.

As the euphoria wore off, Bitcoin (BTC) fell by 0.8 per cent to $27,203.05, Ethereum (ETH) dropped 1.2 per cent to $1,698.85, Solana (SOL) shed 4.7 per cent to trade at $20.64, Ripple (XRP) slid by 1.5 per cent to $0.5263, and Binance Coin (BNB) went south by 1.2 per cent to $222.81.

Further, Cardano (ADA) depreciated by 0.9 per cent to $0.2646, Litecoin (LTC) declined by 0.9 per cent to $67.23, Dogecoin (DOGE) slumped by 0.2 per cent to $0.0655, as Binance USD (BUSD) and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) went down 0.01 per cent each to $0.9999 apiece.