Naira Drops to N725/$1 at P2P, N436.50/$1 at Spot Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira weakened further against the United States Dollar on Wednesday and showed signs of coming under pressure from a shortage in the supply of foreign exchange (FX) in the market.

The Nigerian Naira lost N4 against the greenback in the midweek trading day in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) window of the forex market to settle at N725/$1 in contrast to the N721/$1 it was transacted on Tuesday.

Also, in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the market, the domestic currency depreciated against the US Dollar yesterday by 0.11 per cent or 50 Kobo to close at N436.50/$1 compared with the preceding day’s N436.00/$1 amid an increase in the value of trades recorded at the spot market.

Data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange showed that FX transactions yesterday stood $82.33 million, 30.6 per cent or $19.28 million higher than the $63.05 million recorded in the preceding session.

In the interbank segment, the Naira, however, gained against the Pound Sterling by N5.16 to wrap up at N488.34/£1 versus N493.50/£1 and against the Euro, it appreciated by 55 Kobo to close at N422.56/€1 versus the previous day’s value of N422.56/€1.

In the parallel market, the exchange rate of the local currency to its American counterpart remained unchanged yesterday at N702/$1.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market recorded a bullish outcome as eight of the 10 coins tracked by Business Post pointed north, with Ethereum (ETH) gaining 8.8 per cent to sell at $1,636.97.

Binance Coin (BNB) recorded a 6.5 per cent appreciation to trade at $279.73, Litecoin (LTC) gained 6.4 per cent to trade at $56.93, Solana (SOL) jumped 6.1 per cent to sell at $32.65, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 5.4 per cent improvement to trade at $0.3337, Dogecoin (DOGE) added 4.4 per cent to trade at $0.0611, Cardano (ADA) recorded a 4.0 per cent climb to sell at $0.4772, and Bitcoin (BTC) made a 3.1 per cent gain to sell at $19,291.82.

Still, both US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) retained parity in their values as they were sold for $1.00.