By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira bounced back to profitability on Thursday, December 14 after days in the danger zone triggered by pressure from the demand for foreign exchange (FX) across the market segments.
Yesterday, the value of the Nigerian currency strengthened against the United States Dollar by 0.4 per cent or N3.24 in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange market (NAFEM), quoting at N901.41/$1 compared with the previous day’s N904.65/$1, according to data obtained from the FMDQ Securities Exchange.
The platform also revealed that during the trading session, the supply of forex into the spot market increased by 21.8 per cent or $26.31 million, as the turnover closed at $147.20 million compared with the previous day’s $120.89 million.
In the same vein, the domestic currency performed better in the parallel market on Thursday when compared with the previous trading day, as its value improved by N10 against the American currency, trading at N1,250/$1 compared with Wednesday’s exchange rate of N1,260/$1.
Equally, the Naira appreciated against the greenback by N7 in the unregulated Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segment of the FX market yesterday, closing at N1,210/$1 versus the N1,217/$1 it was exchanged in the midweek session.
Further, the local currency witnessed gains against the Pound Sterling and the Euro, chalking up N37.68 on the British currency to settle at N1,107.94/£1 compared with the N1,145.62/£1 it was sold a day earlier, and gained N33.65 on the Euro to sell for N953.06/€1 versus the previous day’s N986.71/€1.
Business Post reports that the cryptocurrency market witnessed the dominance of the bulls on Thursday, with Solana (SOL) rising by 6.9 per cent to $74.96, and Ripple (XRP) recording a 2.4 per cent gain to trade at $0.6372.
Dogecoin (DOGE) increased its value by 1.9 per cent during the session to trade at $0.0979, Ethereum (ETH) went up by 1.8 per cent to sell at $2,292.11, Binance Coin (BNB) recorded a 1.1 per cent jump to finish at $252.20, and Bitcoin (BTC) hopped by 0.2 per cent to $42,882.84.
Inversely, Cardano (ADA) recorded a 2.9 per cent decrease to sell at $0.6454, and Litecoin (LTC) recorded a 0.9 per cent loss to settle at $72.38, while the US Dollar Coin (USDC) and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) retained parity at $1.00 apiece.
Dipo Olowookere