By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira reversed some of its previous day’s losses as it appreciated by 13 per cent or N135.98 on the American Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, the final trading session of 2023, closing at N907.11/$1 compared with Thursday’s closing price of N1,043.09/$1.
However, it lost N1.58 against the Pound Sterling official market during the session to close at N1,144.57/£1 compared with the previous day’s N1,142.99/£1 and against the Euro, the local currency depreciated by N1.75 to sell for N995.10/€1, in contrast to the preceding day’s value of N993.35/€1.
It was observed that the supply of foreign exchange (FX) to the spot market yesterday slightly increased by 6.8 per cent or $5.67 million to $89.03 million from the previous day’s $83.63 million.
In the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) section of the forex market, the Nigerian currency weakened against the greenback on Friday by N9 to sell at N1,178/$1 compared with the previous day’s price of N1,187/$1.
In the same vein, the domestic currency lost N10 against the US Dollar in the parallel market during the session to settle at N1,210/$1 compared with the preceding trading day’s rate of N1,200/$1.
The year 2023 was very tumultuous for the Naira as its value weakened by 49 per cent in the official market, opening the year at N461.5/$1 and closing at N907.11/$1.
This happened amid a spate of devaluations following the unification of the multiple rate regimes by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the early days of the administration of President Bola Tinubu in June.
In the cryptocurrency market, investors took profit in their earnings as top benchmarked coins closed mixed with Cardano (ADA) losing 4.1 per cent to trade at $0.6193.
Cardano has been the top network by development activity in the last 30 days. It has seen a rising total value and trading volume has been well above $10 million since the beginning of the month. In comparison, that figure stood at less than $3 million at the end of November.
On Friday, Ripple (XRP) fell by 1.9 per cent to trade at $0.6239, Dogecoin (DOGE) declined by 1.5 per cent to $0.0923, Ethereum (ETH) slid by 1.4 per cent to $2,253.47, Binance Coin (BNB) dropped 1.3 per cent to sell for $318.35, and Bitcoin (BTC) slumped by 1.2 per cent to $42,661.57.
But Solana (SOL) appreciated by 0.7 per cent to $106.43, and Litecoin (LTC) improved its value by 0.5 per cent to $76.76, while the US Dollar Tether (USDt) and US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 each.
Dipo Olowookere