Naira Weakens to N1,332/$1 at Official Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira fell against the US Dollar by 90 Kobo or 0.07 per cent in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Monday, October 12, to N1,332.09/$1 from last Friday’s N1,331.19/$1.

The local currency also weakened against the Pound Sterling in the official market by N3.47 to close at N1,762.63/£1 compared with the preceding session’s N1,759.16/£1, and inversely gained N1.64 on the Euro to sell at N1,489.15/€1 versus N1,490.79/€1.

The Naira gained N2 against the Dollar at the GTBank FX desk during the session to settle at N1,338/$1, in contrast to the previous value of N1,340/$1, and traded flat at the parallel market at N1,360/$1.

Data published by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that interbank FX turnover was lower by 77.7 per cent to $36.242 million from $162.736 million.

Meanwhile, as net foreign reserves surged to $46 billion amidst rising private capital inflows, it gives the apex bank enough buffer to step in when needed, particularly as importers may soon need FX ahead of the December festive season.

Last week, US Dollar transactions climbed to $3.37 billion from $1.70 billion a week earlier, as spot deals accounted for almost all the increase.

In its weekly economic and market report for the week ended October 9, Cordros Securities said the near-term outlook for foreign exchange inflows would depend on the resilience of foreign portfolio participation and a recovery in domestic sources of Dollar supply.

As for the cryptocurrency market, benchmarked coins were down as sell-offs in Asian chip stocks and US technology futures weighed on risk appetite.

Pressure as oil prices remained elevated amid threats to Middle Eastern supplies, raising inflation concerns and the prospect of Federal Reserve rate increases, also affected assets like cryptocurrencies.

Traders are awaiting Thursday’s US consumer price index report, with some expecting institutional investors to hedge their crypto holdings rather than reduce their exposure.

Cardano (ADA) depreciated by 5.2 per cent to $0.2394, Solana (SOL) dropped 3.3 per cent to $108.37, Dogecoin (DOGE) slipped by 2.7 per cent to $0.0848, Ripple (XRP) shrank by 2.3 per cent to $1.37, and Ethereum (ETH) crashed by 1.0 per cent to $2,527.83.

Further, Binance Coin (BNB) declined by 0.9 per cent to $744.36, TRON (TRX) depreciated by 0.7 per cent to $0.3299, and Bitcoin (BTC) tumbled by 0.1 per cent to $83,598.44, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) sold flat at $1.00 apiece.