By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira continued its positive movement against the US Dollar in the regulated segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Tuesday, October 3 as the market returned from the Independence Day break observed on Monday.
A day earlier, the country marked the 63rd Independence Day celebration.
The local currency gained N10.08 or 1.34 per cent against the Dollar during the trading session in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the forex market to trade at N745.19/$1 compared with the preceding session’s N755.27/$1.
The value of the Nigerian currency improved in the spot market yesterday amid a low supply of forex into the system, with the value of transactions going down by 43.88 per cent or $63.43 million to $81.12 million from the $144.55 million achieved last Friday.
However, in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) wing, which did not go on a break, the domestic currency lost N5 against the greenback on Tuesday to settle at N1,003/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s value of N998/$1.
Also, in the black market, the Naira depreciated against its American counterpart yesterday by N1 to sell at N1,002/$1 compared with the preceding day’s rate of N1,001/$1.
A look at the performance of the Nigerian Naira in the official market against the Pound Sterling showed that it was bullish on Tuesday, gaining N31.18 to quote at N904.75/£1 versus the preceding session’s N935.93/£1 and against the Euro, it firmed up by N26.28 to trade at N783.86/€1 versus N810.14/€1.
As for the digital currency market, panic selling dominated, with most of the tokens tracked by Business Post closing lower, though October is historically a positive month for cryptocurrencies, colloquially called “Uptober” among crypto traders.
Bitcoin (BTC) declined by 0.9 per cent to $27,367.48, Ethereum (ETH) slid by 1.8 per cent to $1,637.13, Litecoin (LTC) decreased by 3.0 per cent to $64.19, Cardano (ADA) dropped 2.9 per cent to $0.2551, Solana (SOL) recorded a 2.4 per cent slump to trade at $23.08, Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 2.3 per cent to sell at $0.0608, and Binance Coin (BNB) shrank by 1.9 per cent to $211.00.
However, Ripple (XRP) appreciated by 3.6 per cent to $0.5299 as a judge on Monday rejected the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s bid to appeal its ground-shaking loss against Ripple, the crypto company associated with the token.
Meanwhile, both Binance USD (BUSD) and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) maintained stability as $1.00 apiece.
Modupe Gbadeyanka