Naira Drops 0.21% at I&E, Trades Flat at Parallel Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira witnessed a fall in its value against the American Dollar at the Investors & Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange on Tuesday, March 16.

Data obtained by Business Post showed that the local currency, which traded at N408.90/$1 at the opening session of the week, closed at N409.75/$1 yesterday after it shed 85 kobo or 0.21 per cent.

The depreciation in the value of the domestic currency occurred during the session despite not being under a huge demand pressure.

According to details of the day’s transactions, the turnover recorded yesterday reduced by 36.2 per cent or $18.34 million as trades worth $32.33 million were carried out compared with the $50.67 million executed at the preceding session.

One factor that could have been responsible for the poor performance of the Nigerian currency at the I&E window on Tuesday may have been a supply shortage to meet the demand of customers.

However, at the parallel market, the Naira extended its stability against the greenback at the close of the market on Tuesday at N485/$1.

Also, at the unregulated market yesterday, the local currency maintained stability against the Euro to close at N582/€1, but depreciated by N4 against the Pound Sterling to trade at N680/£1 compared to N676/£1 of the preceding day.

At the interbank segment of the market, the rate at which the Naira was exchanged against the American currency remained rooted at N379/$1.

Meanwhile, the bears dominated the cryptocurrency market on Tuesday as four out of the seven tokens tracked by Business Post faced south at the close of transactions.

The Bitcoin (BTC) fell by 0.7 per cent to sell at N36,000,000; Ethereum (ETH) dropped 1.6 per cent to N1,132,035.12; Litecoin (LTC) lost 4.1 per cent to trade at N120,312; while the Dash (DASH) depreciated by 0.3 per cent to N146,590.

But the Ripple (XRP) led the gainers’ group with a 5.9 per cent jump to 296.53, Tron (TRX) recorded a 3.1 per cent appreciation to trade at N33.39 while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) made a 3.2 per cent gain to sell at N644.80.