Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira recorded an appreciated against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Thursday, March 6.
At the official market, the exchange rate of the domestic currency against the greenback closed at N1,602.45/$1 yesterday compared with the preceding day’s value of N1605.74/$1, indicating a gain of 0.22 per cent or N3.29.
However, the Naira depreciated against the Pound Sterling in the spot market during the session by N1.88 to finish at N2,022.82/£1 compared with Wednesday’s rate of N2,020.94/£1.
Similarly, the local currency weakened against the Euro in the same market segment by N4.77 to sell for N1,731.51/€1 versus the N1,726.74/€1 it was exchanged a day earlier.
The movement of the Nigerian currency against the Dollar, Pound Sterling and the Euro at NAFEM occurred as the value of FX transactions declined by 2.5 per cent or $4.22 million to $164.76 million from the $168.98 million recorded in the previous trading day.
In the parallel market, the Naira lost N5 against the US Dollar on Thursday to quote at N1,620/$1 compared with the N1,615/$1 it was traded at the midweek session.
Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market recorded a largely bullish outcome led by Solana (SOL), which gained 10.8 per cent to sell at $145.98 after it was reported that Pantera Capital’s asset manager plans to purchase $250 million worth of SOL tokens from the bankrupt FTX estate.
The bullish momentum contributes to other bullish factors such as the frenzy surrounding Solana SPL meme coins, with Binance Coin (BNB) appreciating by 10.4 per cent to trade at $472.43.
In addition, Litecoin (LTC) surged by 5.0 per cent to settle at $89.58, Ripple (XRP) added 3.3 per cent to quote at $0.6364, Cardano (ADA) went up by 1.9 per cent to $0.7486, Bitcoin (BTC) grew by 1.8 per cent to $67,435.28, and Ethereum (ETH) gained 1.5 per cent to close at $3,883.66.
However, Dogecoin (DOGE) went down by 1.8 per cent to sell at $0.1557, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat $1.00 apiece.
