By Adedapo Adesanya
It was another bad day for the Naira at the peer-to-peer (P2P) segment of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Friday as it depreciated against the United States Dollar by N16 to sell for N736/$1 compared with the previous day’s exchange rate of N720/$1.
Also, the Nigerian currency lost N2.80 or 0.66 per cent against the greenback in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the FX market as it closed at N429/$1 in contrast to Thursday’s value of N426.20/$1.
It was observed that the domestic currency weakened against its American counterpart despite the value of forex trades going down during the session, according to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange.
The turnover for the session was $59.59 million as against the $129.13 million achieved in the preceding session, indicating a decrease of $69.54 million or 53.9 per cent.
In the parallel market, the local currency had a breather as it appreciated against the US Dollar for the first time in some days by N5 to trade at N705/$1 compared with the previous day’s N710/$1.
In the interbank segment, the Naira lost N2.48 against the Pound Sterling to sell for N504.21/£1 versus the preceding day’s N501.73/£1 and against the Euro, it gained 86 Kobo to settle at N421.32/€1 in contrast to the N422.19/€1 it closed on Thursday.
However, tension was high at the market window as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) invaded the hub of foreign currency traders in Abuja yesterday. Some have projected that if this continues, the Naira may witness another round of free-fall.
As for the cryptocurrency market, it was bearish as eight of the 10 tokens monitored by Business Post pointed south, with TerraClassicUSD (USTC) declining by 4.9 per cent to $0.0352 and Litecoin (LTC) shedding 4.6 per cent to trade at $60.86.
Dogecoin (DOGE) fell by 4.4 per cent to close at $0.0683, Solana (SOL) depreciated by 4.2 per cent to $41.68, Cardano (ADA) recorded a 3.2 per cent fall to sell at $0.5125, Ripple (XRP) dropped 3.1 per cent to finish at $0.3652, Ethereum (ETH) went down by 1.9 per cent to $1,699.58, while Bitcoin (BTC) fell by 0.8 per cent to sell at $23,751.44.
But Binance Coin (BNB) appreciated on Friday by 4.6 per cent to trade at $291.76 as the US Dollar Tether (USDT) closed flat at $1.00.
Dipo Olowookere