Naira Crumbles at P2P, Parallel Market, Gains at NAFEX

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira moved in different directions on Thursday at the various foreign exchange (forex) as Nigeria looks for headway to the squeeze in cash liquidity.

The Nigerian Naira crumbled against the US Dollar at the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) window of the market yesterday by N3 to settle at N763/$1 compared with the previous day’s N760/$1.

Also, in the parallel market, the domestic currency depreciated against its American counterpart by N2 to quote at N751/$1 versus Wednesday’s exchange rate of N749/$1.

But in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) wing of the market, the Naira appreciated against the greenback by 7 Kobo or 0.02 per cent to trade at N461.10/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s value of N461.17/$1, according to data obtained from FMDQ Securities Exchange.

The value of FX transactions at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange (NAFEX) window waned by 27.5 per cent or $15.28 million to $40.24 million from the $55.52 million recorded on Wednesday.

In the interbank segment, the local currency fell by N2.37 against the Pound Sterling to settle at N560.24/£1 compared with the previous day’s N557.87/£1 and lost 76 Kobo against the Euro to trade at N496.12/€1 compared with the N495.36/€1 it closed at the midweek session.

A look at the cryptocurrency market showed that most of the tokens tracked by Business Post moved lower across the board. This was triggered by uncertainty surrounding the state of the global economy, which impacted investor confidence.

Bitcoin (BTC) dropped to a two-week low, with prices still trading below the $22,000 mark. Ethereum (ETH) also slipped, following a move towards $1,700 in the previous sessions.

BTC traded down by 2.9 per cent to sell at $21,842.21, ETH slid 4.5 per cent to $1,544.42, Solana (SOL) slumped by 6.7 per cent to $20.79, and Dogecoin (DOGE) went down by 5.4 per cent to $0.0816.

Further, Cardano (ADA) depreciated by 5.3 per cent to $0.3069, Litecoin (LTC) recorded a 3.8 per cent loss to sell at $92.22, Binance Coin (BNB) pointed downwards by 3.7 per cent to $306.89, while Ripple (XRP) depreciated by 0.8 per cent to $0.3876, with Binance USD (BUSD) and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) still flat at $1.00 each.