Naira Drops to N615/$1 at P2P as Luna Recovers

By Adedapo Adesanya

The woes of the Naira continued at the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segment of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Friday as it depreciated against the American Dollar by 0.7 per cent or N4 to close at N615/$1 compared with the previous day’s N611/$1.

However, at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window, the Nigerian currency appreciated against the US Dollar yesterday by 0.24 per cent or N1 to sell at N419.00/$1 in contrast to Thursday’s value of N420.00/$1.

Business Post reports that the local currency gained strength during the session amid pressure from the demand for FX by users. However, the availability of forex to meet their demands was the saving grace as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) ensured that liquidity was not disrupted.

Data gathered from the FMDQ Securities Exchange showed that transactions worth $169.38 million were carried out yesterday at the I&E FX segment compared with the $160.00 million reported a day earlier, implying a 5.9 per cent or $9.38 million increase in forex trades.

Also, at the spot market, the local currency closed firmer against the Pound Sterling and the Euro as it gained N6.76 against the former to trade at N507.33/£1 compared to the previously traded rate of N514.09/£1 and appreciated against the latter by N7.04 to finish at 431.87/€1 in contrast to the previous day’s N438.91/€1.

Meanwhile, the digital currency market witnessed more of the bears than the bulls on Friday amid the crisis rocking Luna (TerraUSD UST), which is causing panic for investors, though it recovered 7.7 per cent to sell at $0.1881.

Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated by 2.7 per cent to trade at $0.0899, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) gained 0.1 per cent to sell for $0.9982.

But Cardano (ADA) lost 8.2 per cent to sell at $0.5422, Ripple (XRP) dropped 6.1 per cent to trade at $0.4277, Binance Coin (BNB) also retreated by 6.1 per cent to $287.39, Bitcoin (BTC) fell by 4.3 per cent to $29,396.57, Ethereum (ETH) went down by 3.8 per cent to $2,028.70, Litecoin (LTC) slid by 3.7 per cent to trade at $67.74, while Solana (SOL) declined by 1.4 per cent to $51.85.