By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira closed stronger against the United States Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Wednesday, March 8, by 0.05 per cent or 25 Kobo, as it traded at N461.25/$1 compared with the preceding day’s rate of N461.50/$1.
The boost was supported by a moderation in the demand for FX at the official market, according to data obtained by Business Post from FMDQ Securities Exchange.
It was observed that the value of forex trades at the I&E window went down by 29.96 per cent or $49.43 million to $115.58 million from the $165.01 million recorded in the previous trading session.
Also, in the peer-to-peer (P2P) segment of the market, the Nigerian currency gained N5 against the greenback yesterday to settle at N755/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s N760/$1.
In the black market, the local currency appreciated against the US Dollar yesterday by N3 to quote at N746/$1, in contrast to the N749/$1 it was exchanged on Tuesday.
In the same vein, the domestic currency was appreciated against the Pound Sterling in the interbank segment of the forex market in the midweek session by N7.35 to close at N545.89/£1 versus Tuesday’s trading value of N550.11/£1, and against the Euro, it was strengthened by N3.35 to end at N485.92/€1 versus N489.27/€1.
As for the digital currency market, there was a mixed movement across the benchmarked tokens as the space continued to reel from comments from US Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s testimony.
Speaking in front of the Senate Banking Committee, Mr Powell said he expected rates to be higher than initially anticipated, dragging Bitcoin (BTC) downwards by 0.5 per cent to $21,991.06, as Ethereum (ETH) rose 0.1 per cent to $1,550.20.
Solana (SOL) fell by 7.2 per cent to trade at $18.51, Litecoin (LTC) went down by 2.7 per cent to $83.16, Cardano (ADA) depreciated by 2.1 per cent to $0.3199, and Dogecoin (DOGE) shrank by 1.9 per cent to $0.0718.
But Ripple (XRP) rose by 3.1 per cent to $0.3929, Binance Coin (BNB) went up by 0.9 per cent to $289.25, while Binance USD (BUSD) and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) closed flat at $1.00 apiece.
