Naira Trades N1,332/$1 at Official Market, N1,358/$1 at Black Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigerian Naira appreciated against the United States Dollar in the major segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Wednesday, October 14.

In the black market window, it gained N2 against its American counterpart to trade at N1,358/$1, in contrast to the preceding day’s N1,360/$1, but lost N1 at the GTBank forex desk to close at N1,340/$1 versus Tuesday’s exchange rate of N1,339/$1.

The Naira improved its value against the greenback during the session by 38 Kobo or 0.03 per cent in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) to settle at N1,332.59/$1 compared with the previous session’s N1,332.97/$1.

The domestic currency also gained 51 Kobo against the Pound Sterling in the official market to close at N1,765.55/£1 compared with the preceding session’s N1,766.06/£1, and appreciated against the Euro by 42 Kobo to sell at N1,489.15/€1 versus N1,490.79/€1.

Interbank FX turnover surged by 426.9 per cent to $490.855 million on Wednesday from $93.163, driven by increased activity from market makers. According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the number of FX deals at the interbank market increased to 172 from the count reported on Tuesday.

Market analysts say 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.

“Expect the Naira to stay stable at the official window, with the parallel gap staying near 3%. Oil above US$100 should keep dollar supply steady and support the Naira,” AIICO Capital Limited said.

In the cryptocurrency market, benchmarked coins were down after hotter-than-expected US inflation data revived concerns that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates in October.

Data released Wednesday showed consumer prices rose 3.7 per cent in the 12 months through September, up from 3.4 per cent in August. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, climbed 2.6 per cent, accelerating from 2.4 per cent the previous month.

Markets pared the odds of an October rate increase to about 26 per cent to 30 per cent after initially pricing in a nearly 50 per cent chance following the inflation report.

Cardano (ADA) dropped by 6.2 per cent to $0.2202, Dogecoin (DOGE) slanted by 5.5 per cent to $0.0799, Ethereum (ETH) dipped by 5.8 per cent to $2,358.01, Solana (SOL) weakened by 4.6 per cent to $102.25, Ripple (XRP) shrank by 4.3 per cent to $1.30.

Further, Binance Coin (BNB) decreased by 3.4 per cent to $717.12, Bitcoin (BTC) went down by 3.1 per cent to $80,849.86, and TRON (TRX) declined by 0.1 per cent to $0.3309, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.