By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira recorded a marginal decline of 0.01 per cent or 17 Kobo against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday to exchange at N1,485.53/$1 compared with Thursday’s closing price of N1,485.53/$1.
The domestic currency, however, maintained stability against the Pound Sterling and the Euro in the official FX market during the session at N1,884.09/£1 and N1,591.24/€1, respectively.
Data showed that there was a slight increase in the supply of forex into the system yesterday, resulting in a 9.8 per cent or $17.30 million surge in the value of FX trades to $193.50 million from the $176.20 million recorded in the preceding trading session.
The development comes amid a rise in Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves in the last two months to $33.58 billion as of June 19, 2024, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) data.
Meanwhile, the Naira to Dollar exchange rate in the parallel market on Friday remained unchanged at N1,490/$1, data obtained by Business Post showed.
As for the cryptocurrency market, it was bullish amid $1 billion in sales from large holders, dollar strength and a strong US technology index market that may be drawing investor money.
Outflow activity from US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has also reached its worst since late April, with $900 million leaving the products this week. These figures are nearing the $1.2 billion in total net outflows in trading sessions from April 24 to May 2.
Solana (SOL) gained 2.8 per cent to trade at $135.49, Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated by 0.5 per cent to $0.1245, Binance Coin (BNB) went up by 0.3 per cent to $586.87, and Litecoin (LTC) improved by 0.2 per cent to $74.04.
On the flip side, Cardano (ADA) declined by 3.0 per cent to $0.3763, Ripple (XRP) dropped 0.4 per cent to sell for $0.4847, Bitcoin (BTC) slid by 0.3 per cent to close at $64,433.24, and Ethereum (ETH) crashed by 0.2 per cent to $3,503.59, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat $1.00 apiece.
