By Sodeinde Temidayo David
The total value of transactions recorded at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange (FX) market in Nigeria increased by 33.9 per cent or $269.4 million last week, analysis by Business Post has shown.
According to data tracked on the FMDQ Securities Exchange between Monday, August 30 and Friday, September 3, indicated that the I&E FX segment printed a weekly turnover of $1.1 billion compared with the $795.12 million achieved in the preceding week.
This significant boost was driven by the transactions reported on Wednesday, September 1 as the market opened the new month with a $486.31 million turnover.
Last Monday, the total transactions at the FX category was $81.81 million but dropped to $72.50 million on Tuesday before jumping to $486.31 million the next day and decreased to $296.34 million on Thursday and down to $127.51 million last Friday.
In the week, the average daily turnover for the week stood at $212.89 million in contrast to the $159.02 million achieved in the week before.
At look at the performance of the local currency at the various market segments showed at the I&E window, the sufficient supply of FX to the market was able to keep the Naira strengthened against the United States Dollar last week by 50 kobo or 0.12 per cent (week-on-week), closing at N411.50/$1 in contrast to N412.00/$1 it settled at the preceding week.
However, at the parallel market, the local currency experienced a depreciation against the greenback last week by N6 or 1.15 per cent to trade at N530/$1 in contrast to N524/$1 it traded at the previous Friday, while also at the interbank segment, the Nigerian currency lost 14 kobo or 0.03 per cent against the US Dollar to close at N410.40/$1 compared with the previous week’s N410.26/$1.
This week, if the FX demand pressure continues and the traders are unable to meet the requests, the domestic currency will likely depreciate, albeit, marginally, at both the investors’ window and the unregulated market segment.
