Naira Appreciates 0.16% at Official FX Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The value of the Naira improved against the US Dollar on Thursday, October 10 by 0.16 per cent or N2.56 in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) to exchange at N1,622.57/$1, in contrast to Wednesday’s closing price of N1,625.13/$1.

The appreciation recorded on the trading day at the official FX market happened despite a decline in the supply of forex to the market.

Data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange indicated that the turnover went down by $25.04 million or 14.7 per cent to $145.56 million from the $170.60 million recorded a day earlier.

However, the Nigerian currency weakened against the Pound Sterling in the spot market yesterday by N41.18 to finish at N2,126.26/£1 versus the preceding session’s N2,085.08/£1 and against the Euro, it suffered a loss of N26.11 to settle at N1,772.69/€1 compared with midweek’s N1,746.58/€1.

Also, the Naira depreciated against the US Dollar in the parallel market on Thursday by N5 to quote at N1,695/$1 compared with the N1,690/$1 it was traded in the preceding trading session.

A look at the cryptocurrency market showed a mixture of hot and cold after the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) report recorded an unexpected re-acceleration of inflation in September.

The news seemingly drove a stake through any idea that the US Federal Reserve could cut interest rates another 50 basis points in November, with some market participants now wondering if the US central bank might even decide to pause its rate-cutting cycle at that meeting.

Also, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued major digital asset market maker Cumberland DRW, raising concerns once again about the challenging regulatory environment for U.S. crypto firms.

The SEC alleged DRW traded crypto assets that were sold as securities without registering as a securities dealer, with Binance Coin (BNB) down by 1.5 per cent to $560.76, and Bitcoin (BTC) shrinking by 0.3 per cent to $60,719.67, while Litecoin (LTC) depreciated by 0.1 per cent to $64.74.

However, Ripple (XRP) gained 2.4 per cent to trade at $0.5383, Cardano (ADA) increased by 2.3 per cent to $0.3454, Solana (SOL) jumped by 1.2 per cent to $141.31, Dogecoin (DOGE) rose by 0.8 per cent to $0.108, and Ethereum (ETH) grew by 0.5 per cent to $2,404.01, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00, respectively.