Naira Falls Against US Dollar at P2P, Black Market, Rises at I&E

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira depreciated against the United States Dollar at the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) and the black parallel market segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Wednesday, March 15, but closed stronger at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the same market.

In the P2P wing, the value of the local currency fell against the greenback by N2 to sell at N755/$1 compared with N753/$1 of the previous session.

In the parallel market, the domestic currency depreciated against the American currency yesterday by N2 to close at N747/$1, in contrast to Tuesday’s closing price of N745/$1.

The local currency, on its part, appreciated against the Dollar by 33 Kobo or 0.07 per cent in the midweek session to settle at N461.09/$1 compared with Tuesday’s exchange rate of N461.42/$1.

This came as daily turnover rose to $142.25 million from the $113.44 million achieved in the previous trading session, indicating an increase in the FX trades by 25.40 per cent or $28.81 million.

In the interbank segment, the Naira was flat against the British Pound Sterling and the Euro during the trading session at N561.67/£1 and N494.65/€1, respectively.

In the cryptocurrency market, the majority of the currencies traded downward after the previous day’s gains as corrections started, with the market reacting positively following the collapse of Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank just as slowing inflation gave some level of boost that the US central bank may not hike interest rate next week.

Bitcoin (BTC) slumped 1.7 per cent to sell at $24,473.12, Ethereum (ETH) depreciated by 3.2 per cent to $1,656.77, Litecoin (LTC) fell by 8.5 per cent to trade at $77.74, Solana (SOL) shed 8.1 per cent to $19.43, and Dogecoin (DOGE) lost 6.6 per cent to quote at $0.0705.

Further, Cardano (ADA) declined by 5.8 per cent to trade at $0.3252, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 3.3 per cent loss to quote at $0.3629, and Binance Coin (BNB) fell by 0.6 per cent to sell $309.45, while the United States Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.