By Adedapo Adesanya
After three days of closing flat against the United States Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange (FX), the Naira lost 3 kobo or 0.01 per cent on Tuesday.
According to data obtained by this newspaper, the value of the Nigerian currency against the greenback yesterday was N415.10/$1 at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Rate Fixing (NAFEX) in contrast to N415.07/$1 it was sold on Monday.
This depreciation occurred as the market witnessed a significant surge in the demand for forex on Tuesday, according to figures harvested from the FMDQ Securities Exchange.
The turnover for yesterday stood at $200.74 million, 122.2 per cent or $110.38 million higher than the $90.36 million reported for the preceding session.
The poor performance of the domestic currency was not limited to the investors’ window on Tuesday as it spread to the interbank segment of the FX market.
The local currency also suffered a 3 kobo or 0.01 per cent loss against the greenback at the close of transactions yesterday as it closed at N411.02/$1 in contrast to N410.99/$1 it finished a day earlier.
However, against the Pound Sterling, the domestic currency gained N1.11 at the interbank to trade at N565.36/£1 versus N566.47/£1 of the preceding session, while against the Euro, it appreciated by 79 kobo to close at N477.12/€1 compared with N477.91/€1 it traded on Monday.
At the cryptocurrency market, eight of the 10 digital coins monitored ended in the green zone, with Bitcoin (BTC) depreciating by 1.9 per cent to settle at N34,927,707.24 while Ethereum (ETH) declined by 0.5 per cent to N2,371,111.10.
However, Ripple (XRP) grew by 4.4 per cent to trade at N649.85, Tron (TRX) rose by 2.8 per cent to sell at N57.44, Cardano (ADA) improved by 2.1 per cent to trade at N1,296.45, while Dash (DASH) gained 1.6 per cent to trade at N116,798.99.
In addition, Litecoin (LTC) added 1.2 per cent to its value to sell for N110,888.89, Binance Coin (BNB) gained 0.5 per cent to trade at N199,111.66, Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated by 0.3 per cent to N155.99, while the United States Dollar Tether moved up by 0.1 per cent to N568.04.
Modupe Gbadeyanka