By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira came under pressure on Friday from sustained demand for FX at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange market.
This weakened the domestic currency by 42 kobo or 0.10 per cent against the United States Dollar during the session to N410.67/$1 from N410.25/$1 it traded the previous session.
It was the first trading day after the Eid el-Fitr holidays on Wednesday and Thursday.
The closure of the market for two days had a negative effect on the local currency as the demand for FX at the investors’ window skyrocketed by 106.9 per cent or $105.09 million as transactions worth $203.42 million were recorded at the final session of the week as against the $98.33 million achieved on Tuesday.
The spillover from the I&E segment of the market was witnessed at the unregulated window of the market on Friday as the local currency depreciated by N1 against the greenback to sell at N484/$1 compared to the previous rate of N483/$1.
In addition, the Naira suffered a N7 loss on the Pound Sterling at the black market to close at N680/£1 versus N673/£1 it sold at the previous session.
However, the Nigerian currency traded flat against the Euro at the parallel market yesterday, closing at N581/€1.
At the interbank window of the forex market, the value of the Naira against its American counterpart remained on Friday at N379/$1.
Meanwhile, at the cryptocurrency market, the digital coins closed in different directions, according to data obtained by Business Post on Quidax.
The most popular digital currency, Bitcoin (BTC), appreciated yesterday by 5.6 per cent to sell at N25,588,100.54, Ethereum (ETH) gained 4.3 per cent to trade at N1,997,829.25, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) moved up by 4.2 per cent to sell for N528.97.
On the flip side, the Dash (DASH) dipped by 4.7 per cent to sell for N182,074.83, Ripple (XRP) slid by 3.1 per cent to N677.99, Litecoin (LTC) declined by 1.9 per cent to sell at 174,800, while Tron (TRX) recorded a 0.9 per cent fall to trade at N64.28.
Modupe Gbadeyanka