Analysts Foresee Naira Appreciation at Forex Market This Week

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The value of the Naira is expected to be further strengthened against the United States Dollar in most segments of the foreign exchange market this week.

Analysts at Cowry Asset said the local currency will appreciated against the Dollar especially at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the market.

This appreciation, the analysts said, would be buoyed by the sustained special interventions by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Last week, the local currency appreciated by 0.11 percent at the I&E segment of the market to close at N360.50 per Dollar.

However, at the Interbank segment, the Naira depreciated by 0.06 percent to close at N356.60/$ despite the sustained weekly injections of $210 million by CBN into the forex market via the Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS).

During the weekly intervention, $100 million was allocated to Wholesale SMIS, $55 million was allocated to Small and Medium Scale Enterprises and $55 million was sold for invisibles.

Also, Naira lost against the Dollar by 0.28 percent each at both the Bureau De Change (BDC) and the parallel market segments to close at N359/$ and N361/$ respectively.

Meanwhile, the Naira gained for all of the foreign exchange forward contracts – spot rate, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months rates improved by 0.02 percent, 0.08 percent, 0.12 percent, 0.23 percent, 0.21 percent and 0.34 percent to close at N306.95/$, N363.36/$, N366.19/$, N369.01/$, N380.69/$ and N402.90/$ respectively.