By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira witnessed a bad day at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Wednesday as it weakened against the US Dollar by 23 kobo or 0.06 per cent to close at N414.73/$1 in contrast to N414.50/$1 it traded on Tuesday.
Data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange showed that FX demand pressure at the investors’ segment cracked the local currency yesterday, causing traders to ration what they had.
Transactions worth $467.56 million were carried out at the window yesterday, Business Post gathered, 226.2 per cent or $339.88 million higher than the $127.68 million recorded the day before.
Also at the interbank segment of the market, the Nigerian currency further depreciated by 3 kobo or 0.01 per cent against the American Dollar as it traded at N410.80/$1 compared to N410.77/$1 it transacted at the preceding trading day, according to data on the website of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Meanwhile, at the parallel market, this newspaper, from transactions with FX dealers on the streets of Lagos, gathered that the value of Naira to the Dollar depreciated to N580/$1 on Wednesday.
It was also observed that the Nigerian currency was traded yesterday against the Pound Sterling at N780, while the Euro was sold at N680 at the black market.
At the cryptocurrency market, things still remained volatile despite an attempt to recover from the shakeup brought about by China’s latest regulatory push.
Bitcoin (BTC) lost 0.9 per cent to trade at N23,779,610.94, the US Dollar Tether (USDT) depreciated by 1.2 per cent to sell for N572.10, Ethereum (ETH) went down by 0.3 per cent to sell at N1,689,890.00, while Dogecoin (DOGE) lost 0.2 per cent to sell at N117.41.
However, Litecoin (LTC) made a 4.1 per cent gain to trade at N86,647.60, Dash (DASH) jumped 3.6 per cent to N90,893.80, Binance Coin (BNB) rose by N149,366.80, Ripple (XRP) went up by 0.6 per cent to trade at N535.14, Tron (TRX) appreciated by 0.4 per cent to sell at N49.24, while Cardano (ADA) improved by 0.2 per cent to sell at N1,226.04.
Modupe Gbadeyanka