By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira appreciated against the US Dollar in the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) but weakened at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) and the parallel market windows of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Friday, April 28.
In the P2P wing of the market, currency traders exchanged the Naira to the Dollar at N749/$1 during the session versus N750/$1 a day earlier, indicating that the local currency appreciated by N1 in 24 hours.
But it was a different story in the black market, where the domestic currency depreciated against its American colleague by N2 to sell at N739/$1 compared with Thursday’s exchange rate of N737/$1.
It was the same scenario in the official market, where the Nigerian Naira lost 87 Kobo or 0.22 per cent against the greenback on Friday to trade at N463.00/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s N462.13/$1.
In the interbank segment, the Naira gained 72 Kobo against the Pound Sterling yesterday to finish at N574.06/£1 compared with the preceding session’s N574.78/£1 and against the Euro, it improved by N1.26 to N507.79/€1 from N509.11/€1.
In the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) slid below the $29,500 mark as crypto markets reacted to the release of the US Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) Price Index, which came in even at market expectations.
The Core PCE Price Index nosedived to 4.6 per cent year-on-year and climbed 0.3 per cent month-on-month.
BTC, which is the most valued crypto, dropped 1.3 per cent on Friday to sell at $29,362.26, Ethereum (ETH) saw its hope of moving closer to $1,900 hit a snag after it shed 1.4 per cent to $1,897.98, Binance Coin (BNB) fell by 3.2 per cent to $324.81, Cardano (ADA) dropped by 1.6 per cent to trade at $0.4056, and Litecoin (LTC) went down by 0.5 per cent to $89.75.
However, Solana (SOL) appreciated by 3.2 per cent to $23.19, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 2.4 per cent gain to trade at $0.4791, and Dogecoin (DOGE) improved by 0.3 per cent to $0.0805, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) traded flat at $1.00 each.
Modupe Gbadeyanka