Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
It was a bad day for the Naira at the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and black market segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Wednesday, May 24, as it weakened against the US Dollar at the close of business.
In the P2P window, the local currency lost N6 against the American currency during the trading day to close at N775/$1 compared with the preceding day’s value of N769/$1.
In the parallel market, the domestic currency depreciated against its American counterpart yesterday by N2 to trade at N762/$1, in contrast to Tuesday’s value of N760/$1.
However, in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window, the Nigerian currency appreciated against the US Dollar by 0.23 per cent or N1.09 to close at N463.33/$1 versus the previous day’s rate of N464.42/$1, with bids moderating when compared with the previous day.
Data from FMDQ Securities Exchange showed that investors bid the Naira to the Dollar as low as N460.00/$1 and as high as N467.00/$1. In the previous session, it was as high as N632.00/$1, stoking fears of devaluation.
This happened as the value of forex transactions eased to $77.00 million from the $215.91 million reported on Tuesday, indicating a decline of $138.91 or 64.3 per cent.
In the interbank segment of the market, the Naira gained N3.38 against the Pound Sterling to finish at N571.61/£1 versus N574.99/£1 and it appreciated by N1.99 to N497.25/€1 from N499.24/€1.
In the cryptocurrency market, most cryptos ended on the red side as investors reacted to poor UK inflation figures.
The hotter-than-expected U.K. core Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rate came in at 6.8 per cent – the highest since 1992 – against an expected figure was 6.2 per cent. This means gains in core prices, excluding food, energy, and tobacco, accelerated by 6.8 per cent last month from 6.2 per cent in March.
Bitcoin (BTC) slid below $27,000 following a 2.1 per cent loss to close at $26,255.37, Ethereum (ETH) lost 2.5 per cent to sell at $1,781.22, Litecoin (LTC) went down by 4.3 per cent to trade at $84.48, Binance Coin (BNB) fell by 1.5 per cent to $304.53, and Dogecoin (DOGE) also made a 1.5 per cent depreciation to sell at $0.0704.
Further, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 1.3 per cent drop to trade at $0.4538, Cardano (ADA) slid by 1.2 per cent to $0.3605, and Solana (SOL) went down by 1.0 per cent to $19.37, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) closed flat $1.00 each.
