By Adedapo Adesanya
The exchange rate of the Naira against the United States Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange market favour the former on Monday, April 19.
This was because the local currency appreciated by 0.16 per cent or 67 kobo to close the session at N410.33/$1 compared to N411/$1 it closed last Friday.
The domestic currency closed stronger yesterday despite a 13.3 per cent or $8.19 million increase in the demand for FX by customers at the market segment.
According to data harvested from the FMDQ Securities Exchange, transactions valued at $69.71 million were executed at the I&E yesterday compared with the $61.52 million recorded at the previous session.
What could have helped the Naira to suppress the demand pressure was that FX traders had enough supply to soak customers’ requests during the session.
At another segment of the forex market on Monday, the interbank, which is the official exchange window of the country, the Naira maintained its stability against the American currency as it closed at N379/$1.
At the unregulated segment of the market, which is called the black market, the local currency also traded flat against the greenback yesterday at N482/$1, according to data obtained from AbokiFX, a platform for tracking transactions at the parallel market.
It was a similar outcome for the Nigerian currency against the Pound Sterling and the Euro at the black market as it remained unchanged at N670/£1 and N570/€1 respectively.
A quick look at the cryptocurrency market showed that on Monday, the space continued its volatility as fears around regulation gripped the market even as acceptance continues to spread across the world with the United Kingdom mulling a digital currency.
Business Post reports that the Bitcoin depreciated by 0.4 per cent to N27,899,123.91; Ethereum (ETH) went down by 1.9 per cent to sell for N1,114,355.76; Dash (DASH) shed 13.7 per cent close at N158,686.25; Litecoin (LTC) declined by 1.1 per cent to quote at 136,000; while Tron (TRX) dropped 1.7 per cent to sell for N69.80.
However, the Ripple (XRP) had a bullish session on Monday with a growth of 5.7 per cent to close at N720 and was joined by the US Dollar Tether, which grew by 0.3 per cent to trade at N503.70.
Modupe Gbadeyanka