By Ahmed Rahma, Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira recorded a mixed outcome against the United States Dollar at the foreign exchange (FX) market on Tuesday, losing at the unregulated segment, appreciating at one of the regulated windows and maintaining stability at the others.
Business Post reports that at the black market, the local currency suffered a decline of N3 or 0.63 per cent against the greenback to trade at N480/$1 in contrast to the N477/$1 it was sold on Monday.
The Nigerian currency further compounded its woes at the parallel market yesterday when it also lost N3 against the British Pound Sterling to sell at N650/£1 in contrast to N647/£1 it was traded at the preceding session.
Furthermore, the domestic recorded a slip against the Euro by N5 at the second trading session of the week to close at N585/€1 compared with N580/€1 of the previous day.
However, a respite came for the Nigerian currency at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window despite coming under pressure due o the rise in the demand for FX by customers.
During the trading day, the Naira appreciated by 0.13 per cent or 50 kobo against its American counterpart to wrap up the day at N394/$1 as against N394.50/$1 of the day before.
This strengthening of the Naira was boosted by the FX liquidity at the market segment, which was enough to meet the demands at the window. Transactions worth $108.34 million were recorded yesterday at the segment in contrast to the $39.99 million achieved on Monday, indicating $74.35 million or 218.7 per cent increase in the turnover.
Things remained stable at the interbank segment of the FX market as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) still auctioned the Dollar to commercial banks at N379/$1.
Also, according to data harvested from the Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), the Naira still maintained stability against the greenback at N395/$1.
A quick look at the cryptocurrency market showed that the volatility persistent on Tuesday as only two of the seven digital coins tracked made gains.
Bitcoin (BTC) gained 0.3 per cent to trade at N15,349,976.60, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) appreciated by 1.7 per cent to sell for N488.58.
On the loser’s end, Ethereum went down by 2.3 per cent to sell at N634,505.71, Litecoin (LTC) depreciated by 5.8 per cent to trade at N63,469.00, Dash (DASH) declined by 3.6 per cent to sell at N48,571.00, Ripple (XRP) lost 1.1 per cent to trade at N129.30, while Tron (TRX) dropped 1.5 per cent to sell at N14.14.
Modupe Gbadeyanka