Naira Firms to N742/$1 at I&E, Weakens to N830/$1 at Parallel Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigerian Naira continued its strong-arming against the US Dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) arm of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Tuesday, July 18, gaining 6.58 per cent or N52.35 to sell at N742.93/$1 compared with the preceding day’s N795.28/$1, according to data obtained from FMDQ Securities Exchange.

The Naira firmed up despite coming under a forex demand pressure as the value of transactions increased by 352.4 per cent or $121.74 million to $156.29 million from the $34.55 million recorded in the preceding session.

However, in the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) window, the exchange rate of the Naira to the Dollar worsened as it depreciated by N36 to trade at N842/$1, in contrast to Monday’s rate of N806/$1.

The continued volatility in the unregulated FX market segment went on in the black market yesterday as the local currency shed N10 against the American currency to settle at N830/$1 versus the previous day’s value of N820/$1.

But the domestic currency appreciated against the Pound Sterling in the spot market by N6.69 to sell at N1,011.07/£1 compared with Monday’s N1,017.76/£1 and gained N3.91 against the Euro to end the session at N868.18/€1 versus N/872.09€1.

The digital currency market heaved a sigh of relief on Tuesday, though the biggest and oldest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), remained below $31,000 despite soaring above the level last week.

Yesterday, the token improved by 0.04 per cent to $30,106.10, as its rival, Ethereum (ETH), appreciated by 0.4 per cent to quote at $1,914.13.

Ripple (XRP) continued to surge after a judge ruled that the company behind the cryptocurrency was partly victorious in a long-standing battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on whether it sold unregistered securities back in 2020. It rose by 7.6 per cent to trade at $0.798, while Cardano (ADA) jumped by 3.6 per cent to $0.3197, and Litecoin (LTC) went up by 1.4 per cent to $93.68 after making a 1.4 per cent rise.

On the flip side, Solana (SOL) recorded a 0.4 per cent slump to trade at $26.40, Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 0.3 per cent to sell at $0.0696, while Binance Coin (BNB) declined by 0.2 per cent to trade at $243.47, as Binance USD (BUSD) and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) closed flat at $1.00 apiece.