Naira Drops 0.04% at I&E, Closes Flat at P2P Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira further depreciated by 0.04 per cent or 17 kobo against the American Dollar on Thursday at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange (forex) market, trading at N416.67/$1 compared with N416.50/$1 it closed on Wednesday.

FX demand pressure caused the woes of the local currency yesterday at the currency market as forex dealers were unable to meet the high demand for foreign currencies at the market window during the session.

At the market on Thursday, FX transactions valued at $127.02 million was recorded compared with the $130.73 million posted at the preceding session, indicating a marginal decline in turnover by 2.8 per cent or $3.71 million.

At the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) window, the Naira showed no movement against the United States Dollar on Thursday as it remained at N574/$1 at the close of business.

A look at the performance of the domestic currency against other foreign currencies at the official FX window in Nigeria showed that the Naira maintained stability against the Pound Sterling yesterday as it remained intact at N564.68/£1.

It was a similar scenario with the Euro at the same market segment yesterday as the Nigerian currency traded flat at N477.12/€1.

As for the market, all the 10 digital coins tracked by Business Post depreciated as investors view short-term geopolitical risks and potential overly aggressive US Federal Reserve monetary tightening as a risk to all risky assets, including cryptocurrencies.

As a result, Litecoin (LTC) retreated by 7.6 per cent to trade at N69,548.81, Bitcoin (BTC) saw a 6.7 per cent depreciation to sell for N23,561,220, Ethereum (ETH) depreciated by 5.8 per cent to sell at N1,700,583.22, while Solana (SOL) dropped 4.7 per cent to quote at N56,184.58.

Further, Binance Coin (BNB) recorded a 4.6 per cent loss to trade at N168,066.94, Dogecoin (DOGE) fell by 4.4 per cent to trade N81.96, Dash (DASH) moved down by 4.2 per cent to settle at N44,133.49, Ripple (XRP) went up by 2.9 per cent to trade at N463.37, Cardano (ADA) declined by 3.9 per cent to sell at N609.95, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) decreased by 0.5 per cent to close at N579.58.