By Adedapo Adesanya
The value of the Naira lost N1.20 or 0.29 per cent against the US Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Tuesday, April 6.
At the close of transactions yesterday, the local currency closed at N410.50/$1 in contrast to N409.30/$1 it ended at the previous trading session (Thursday, April 1).
The market went on the long Easter break and there were no trading activities at the FX window specially tailored for investments and exports.
According to data obtained by Business Post from the FMDQ Securities Exchange, the Naira depreciated at the session because of the huge pressure on the currency.
This was understandable because of the long break and this spiked the demand for forex by traders, making the day’s turnover rise by 14.8 per cent or $5.25 million as transactions worth $40.80 million were recorded on Tuesday compared with the previous $35.55 million.
A look at the parallel market yesterday showed that the Naira maintained stability against the United States Dollar as it closed flat at N485/$1.
The domestic currency also remained unchanged against the Euro at N573/€1, but lost N2 against the Pound Sterling to close at N674/£1 versus N672/£1 it ended last Thursday.
At the interbank segment of the market, the exchange rate of the Naira to the Dollar remained unchanged at N379/$1.
XRP Rally at Crypto Market
Meanwhile, at the cryptocurrency market, there was generally a positive outcome among the seven digital currencies tracked by Business Post as five tokens were bullish with two in the negatives.
Ripple (XRP) witnessed the highest gain of the day as it jumped 9.5 per cent to sell at N491.62. Litecoin (LTC) added 4.5 per cent to trade at N114,858.50; Ethereum (ETH) grew by 0.5 per cent to sell at N1,031,111.00; the Dash (DASH) appreciated by 0.6 per cent to sell at N137,367.76; while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) improved by 0.6 per cent to trade at N497.61.
However, the Tron (TRX) massively plunged by 20.0 per cent to N61.50, while Bitcoin (BTC) went down by 1.2 per cent to trade at N28,601,000.79.
Dipo Olowookere