Naira Firms at Official Market, Slacks at Parallel Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira had a mixed outcome against the US Dollar at the different segments of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Thursday, as the market got a breather following the conclusion of a tribunal that affirmed that President Bola Tinubu was the winner of the 2023 general election, throwing out petitions from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP).

In the Investors and Exporters (I&E)  window, the Nigerian currency gained weight, but in the black market and the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segments, its value depreciated.

Analysis showed that in the official market, the local currency appreciated against the greenback during the session by 4.5 per cent or N34.97 to settle at N736.62/$1, in contrast to Wednesday’s exchange rate of N771.59/$1.

It was observed that the value of forex trades remained low as the turnover for the session marginally increased by 1.7 per cent or $1.13 million to $66.43 million from the $65.30 million reported in the midweek session.

However, in the parallel market, the Naira lost against the Dollar during the trading day by N4 to sell at N929/$1 compared with the previous day’s rate of N925/$1.

Also, in the P2P, the domestic currency depreciated against its American counterpart by N7 to sell at N933/$1 versus the previous day’s N926/$1.

In the spot market, the Nigerian currency traded flat against the British Pound Sterling and the Euro on Thursday at N986.79/£1 and N842.48/€1 apiece.

A look at the digital currency market showed that most of the coins were in green yesterday, with Bitcoin (BTC) jumping by 2.26 per cent to sell at $26,297.77 and Ethereum (ETH) rising by 1.3 per cent to $1,651.35.

Litecoin (LTC) grew by 2.2 per cent to trade at $63.98, Solana (SOL) jumped by 1.6 per cent to sell at $19.92, Binance Coin (BNB) improved by 1.1 per cent to $217.01, Ripple (XRP) rose by 0.7 per cent to trade at $0.5051, Cardano (ADA) appreciated by 0.6 per cent to $0.2586, Dogecoin (DOGE) expanded by 0.4 per cent to $0.0636, the US Dollar Tether (USDT) increased by 0.04 per cent to $0.9997, and Binance USD (BUSD) gained 0.03 per cent to close at $1.00.