By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira appreciated against the US Dollar by 3.6 per cent or N29.30 in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Wednesday, November 1, despite a continued liquidity crisis.
Data showed that the exchange rate of the local currency in the official market closed at N786.02/$1 compared with the preceding day’s N815.32/$1.
Business Post reports that the supply of forex into the spot market improved during the midweek session by 41.8 per cent or $31.25 million, as the FX trades stood at $105.98 million versus the $74.73 million achieved a day earlier, according to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange.
Last week, the government said it was expecting to attract $10 billion of inflows in the coming weeks to help ease liquidity constraints and clear a backlog of arrears of matured forward contracts weighing on the currency.
Also, in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segment of the FX market, the value of the Nigerian currency improved against the greenback yesterday by N8 to sell at N1,133/$1 compared with the preceding day’s N1,141/$1.
Similarly, in the parallel market, the domestic currency appreciated against the American currency yesterday by N10 to quote at N1,160/$1 compared with Tuesday’s exchange rate of N1,170/$1.
In the official market, the Naira gained N115.14 against British Pound Sterling to close at N989/£1 versus the previous day’s N1,104.56/£1 and against the Euro, it improved by N105.01 to settle at N860.24/€1, in contrast to the previous session’s N965.25/€1.
Meanwhile, the digital currency market turned green on Wednesday as the US Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) left its benchmark fed funds rate range steady at 5.25 per cent – 5.50 per cent.
Bitcoin (BTC) rose by 2.4 per cent to sell at $34,453.83, Ethereum (ETH) grew by 1.9 per cent to $1,846.71, Solana (SOL) increased by 8.4 per cent to $41.36, Cardano (ADA) jumped by 5.1 per cent to trade at $0.3072, and Ripple (XRP) soared by 1.8 per cent to $0.6079.
Further, Litecoin (LTC) went up by 1.0 per cent to trade at $69.85, Dogecoin (DOGE) also expanded by 1.0 per cent to $0.0687, and Binance Coin (BNB) moved up by 0.6 per cent to $227.72, while the US Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) closed flat at $1.00 each.
