Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira appreciated against the US Dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) of the foreign exchange market on Wednesday, July 26, as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it was intervening in the market, adding that the volatility in the market would soon be moderate.
In the official market, the domestic currency gained N51.34 or 6.5 per cent against the greenback to close at N740.08/$1 compared with the preceding session’s N791.42/$1.
“We have started intervening, and we’ve been doing it for a while, and we will continue to intervene to bring the markets to the levels that we believe it should be.
“Right now and in the short run, these volatile times are expected, but we expect them to moderate sooner rather than later,” acting CBN Governor, Mr Folashodun Shonubi, said late on Tuesday after the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja.
At the meeting, the MPC raised Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), which measures interest rate, from 18.5 per cent to 18.75 per cent.
The midweek trade turnover also showed an improvement in liquidity, as the FX trades rose by 197.3 per cent or $101.73 million to $153.28 million from $51.55 million on Tuesday.
Equally, the Nigerian currency appreciated against the Dollar in the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) window yesterday by N11 to sell at N850.00/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s rate of N861.00/$1.
But in the parallel market, the Naira lost N3 against the American Dollar to trade at N870/$1 compared with the preceding session’s N867/$1.
The Naira firmed up against the Pound Sterling in the official market in the midweek session by N51.72 to settle at N962.76/£1 compared with Tuesday’s N1,014.48/£1 and against the Euro, it improved by N47.04 to quote at N824.41/€1 from N871.45/€1.
In the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) and a host of other benchmarked currencies traded up as traders reacted to expected moves by the US Federal Reserve to raise interest rates but the Fed’s decision failed to tamp down hopes that it would soon halt interest rate hikes.
BTC grew by 0.9 per cent to sell at $29,464.86, Ethereum (ETH) improved by 1.3 per cent to $1,879.47, Solana (SOL) rose by 7.3 per cent to $25.12, Cardano (ADA) appreciated by 3.4 per cent to $0.3127, Litecoin (LTC) increased by 2.1 per cent to $91.42, Ripple (XRP) went up by 1.9 per cent to $0.7196, and Binance Coin (BNB) jumped by 0.9 per cent to $240.42.
However, after recent gains, Dogecoin (DOGE) snagged by 2.3 per cent to $0.0782, as the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) traded flat at $1.00 each.
