Naira Appreciates at Spot Market as Cryptos Recover

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira further appreciated against the US Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange (forex) market by 0.1 per cent or 40 kobo on Friday, November 20.

According to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange, the local currency was sold for N414.40/$1 at the spot market yesterday compared with N414.80/$1 it was traded on Thursday.

Low turnover contributed to the appreciation recorded by the domestic currency at the market window on Friday as the value of trades was only $69.63 million as against the $90.18 million achieved at the preceding session.

This indicated that the value of transactions declined by $20.55 million or 22.8 per cent during the final trading session of the week at the I&E segment.

However, at the interbank segment of the market, the Nigerian currency closed flat against the American Dollar on Friday at N411.59/$1 and lost N1.09 against the Pound Sterling to settle at N555.23/£1 in contrast to the previous rate of N554.14/£1.

Also, against the Euro, the Naira depreciated yesterday by 80 kobo to trade at N466.99/€1 compared with the preceding session’s N466.19/€1.

Meanwhile, investment in the cryptocurrency market was bullish as eight of the 10 digital coins monitored by Business Post closed in the green territory.

The market is recovering from recent jitters caused by the fears of taxation and more government regulation.

Dash (DASH) recorded the highest gain of 8.5 per cent to sell for N107,796.86, Ethereum (ETH) jumped by 6.9 per cent to sell at N2,361,771.20, Litecoin (LTC) appreciated by 6.7 per cent to trade at N2,361,771.20, while Binance Coin (BNB) made a 5.5 per cent gain to trade at N238,721.46.

Further, Cardano (ADA) rose by 4.4 per cent to N1,087.22, Ripple (XRP) gained 3.6 per cent to trade at N601.10, Bitcoin (BTC) increased its value by 2.7 per cent to sell at N32,028,974.20, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) moved upwards by 0.9 per cent to sell for N559.30.

On the losers’ side, Tron (TRX) lost 2.7 per cent to trade at N56.36, while Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 0.3 per cent to sell at N136.89.