By Adedapo Adesanya
Trading activities resumed at the official segment of the foreign exchange (FX), with the Nigerian Naira returning to familiar territory after the Eid-el-Maulud break due to forex demand pressure.
The nation’s currency depreciated against the US Dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) arm of the market on Thursday, September 28, by 2.68 per cent or N20.23 to finish at N775.31/$1 compared with the preceding day’s value of N755.08/$1.
It was observed that the domestic currency crumbled during the session due to FX demand caused by the break, with the spot market recording trades valued at $144.55 million, 6.3 per cent or $8.52 million higher than the $135.98 million achieved on Tuesday.
Unlike the official market, the unregulated FX windows were not affected by the midweek holiday.
The Naira depreciated against the American currency by N9 in the parallel market yesterday to settle at N1003/$1, in contrast to the previous trading day’s exchange rate of N994/$1.
However, in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) window, the local currency appreciated against the US Dollar on Thursday by N9 to quote at N1,002/$1 compared with Wednesday’s closing price of N1,013/$1.
In the I&E segment, the Nigerian currency gained weight against the Pound Sterling during the session by N12.17 to close at N935.93/£1 versus Tuesday’s value of N948.10/£1 and against the Euro, it improved by N14.24 to finish at N810.14/€1 versus N824.38/€1.
As for the digital currency market, prices went up as most of the tokens tracked by Business Post as weaker US dollars today helped investors’ crypto appetite.
Bitcoin (BTC) jumped by 2.0 per cent to $26,965.47, Ethereum (ETH) appreciated by 2.7 per cent to $1,655.23, Solana (SOL) rose by 4.6 per cent to $20.11, Litecoin (LTC) grew by 2.6 per cent to $65.23, and Cardano (ADA) expanded by 2.5 per cent to $0.2503.
Further, Ripple (XRP) increased by 2.3 per cent to $0.5087, Dogecoin (DOGE) went up by 1.7 per cent to $0.0616, Binance Coin (BNB) moved up by 1.5 per cent to $214.99, and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) rose by 0.08 per cent to $0.9999, while Binance USD (BUSD) closed flat at $1.00.
