Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira continued its fall against the United States Dollar on Thursday after it lost N2.34 or 0.16 per cent in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX), trading at N1,485.36/$1, in contrast to Wednesday’s exchange rate of N1,486.02/$1.
Also, the local currency weakened against the British Pound Sterling in the spot market during the session by N13.57 to sell for N1,884.09/£1 compared with midweek’s closing price of N1,870.52/£1 and depreciated by N15.05 against the Euro to quote at N1,591.24/€1 versus the previous day’s N1,576.19/€1.
The domestic currency came under pressure yesterday despite a rise in the value of FX transactions by 16.9 per cent or $25.47 million to $176.20 million from the $150.73 million recorded in the preceding trading day, according to data harvested from the FMDQ Securities Exchange.
A look at the black market showed that the Nigerian currency suffered a N5 loss against the US Dollar on Thursday to settle at N1,490/$1 compared with Wednesday’s exchange rate of N1,485/$1.
Market analysts from Fitch Ratings recently noted that despite the volatility experienced by the Naira since it was floated in June 2023, there are expectations that the fluctuation would reduce by the third quarter (Q3) of 2024.
In the cryptocurrency market, Binance Coin (BNB) led the losers’ group after it dropped 2.8 per cent to sell for $585.47, as Solana (SOL) recorded a 2.6 per cent depreciation to finish at $132.46, and Ethereum (ETH) declined by 2.1 per cent to trade at $3,509.58.
In addition, Bitcoin (BTC) fell by 1.5 per cent to close at $64,559.19, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 1.4 per cent slump to end at $0.4888, Cardano (ADA) lost 0.9 per cent to quote at $0.3883, Litecoin (LTC) went down by 0.6 per cent to sell for $73.96, and Dogecoin (DOGE) posted a decline of 0.5 per cent to settle at $0.1239, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 each.
