Naira Appreciates at Official Market, P2P, Falls at Parallel Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira regained a part of its lost ground to the United States Dollar on Wednesday in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) and the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Wednesday, July 5, but shed weight in the parallel market as it continues to find its balance following recent moves to stabilise the rates.

In the official I&E segment of the market, the domestic currency gained N26.13 or 3.4 per cent to sell at N742.31/$1 compared with the previous day’s value of N768.44/$1.

It was observed that the spot market is still battling with the forex supply crisis, though this did not heavily impact the performance of the Nigerian currency at the close of transactions yesterday.

The value of FX trades posted in the midweek session increased by $15.51 million or 21 per cent to $89.37 million from the $73.86 million recorded in the preceding session.

In the P2P window, the local currency appreciated against the American currency on Wednesday by N1.97 to settle at N786.20/$1, in contrast to Tuesday’s rate of N788.17/$1.

But in the black market, the Naira lost N2 against the greenback yesterday to quote at N781/$1 versus the previous day’s value of N779/$1.

The Naira closed flat against the Pound Sterling and the Euro in the official market on Wednesday to N948.03/£1 and N814.71/€1, respectively.

In the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin lost 1.2 per cent to finish at $30,479.73, as traders continued to observe the US inflation figures and the Federal Reserve’s monetary action over the next few weeks.

During the session, Ethereum (ETH) shed 1.5 per cent to sell at $1,913.21, Cardano (ADA) dropped 3.2 per cent to trade at $0.2839, Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 2.9 per cent to $0.0670, Ripple (XRP) fell by 2.6 per cent to $04771, Litecoin (LTC) went southwards by 2.2 per cent to $103.47, and Binance Coin (BNB) declined by 1.8 per cent to $239.07.

However, Solana (SOL) went up by 1.5 per cent to $19.55, as the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) retained their stable value of $1.00 each.