By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira appreciated on the US Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Thursday, July 20, amid continued forex shortages and the further widening of the disparity of the rates across other windows.
The Nigerian Naira gained 3.2 per cent or N25.54 against the greenback during the trading day to settle at N768.16/$1, in contrast to Wednesday’s closing rate of N793.70/$1.
The firming up of the local currency was supported by the $28.7 million or 33.2 per cent shortfall in the value of FX transactions at the spot market to $58.22 million from $87.19 million.
Also, in the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) window, the domestic currency gained N18 against the United States currency yesterday to sell at N850.00/$1 compared with Wednesday’s closing value of N868.00/$1.
But in the black market, the Naira depreciated against the Dollar by N10 to sell at N855/$1 compared with the previous day’s closing rate of N845/$1.
Against other currencies traded in the official market, the Naira appreciated against the British Pound Sterling on Thursday by N23.86 to close at N995.19/£1 versus Wednesday’s quoted rate of N1,019.05/£1 and against the Euro, it improved by N21.89 to finish at N863.00/€1 compared with the previous day’s N884.89/€1.
In the digital currency market, tokens witnessed a fall as the markets faced worries about continued regulation of the assets, with Kuwait being the latest jurisdiction to ban virtually all operations involving cryptocurrencies.
Kuwait’s main financial regulator, the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), issued a circular on the supervision and issuance of virtual assets in the country.
In the circular, the CMA confirmed the commitment to “absolute prohibition” on major use cases and operations involving cryptocurrencies, including payments, investments, and mining.
The circular also bans local regulators from issuing any licenses allowing firms to provide virtual asset services as a commercial business.
As a result, Bitcoin (BTC) slumped 1.2 per cent to sell at $29,811.33, Ethereum (ETH) lost 0.9 per cent to quote at $1,891.90, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 6.4 per cent slide to $0.7882, Solana (SOL) shed 5.8 per cent to $25.24, Cardano (ADA) dropped 4.7 per cent to $0.3143, and Litecoin (LTC) slumped by 0.6 per cent to $92.34.
But Dogecoin (DOGE) increased by 2.1 per cent to $0.0724, Binance Coin (BNB) rose by 0.2 per cent to $243.05, and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.
Dipo Olowookere