Naira Gains at Official Market, Falls at Black Market, Flat at P2P

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira witnessed the three different possible outcomes at the various segments of the foreign exchange (FX) on Thursday, April 27, when it appreciated against the Dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window, depreciated in the black market, and traded flat in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) wing of the market.

In the official market, the Naira gained 13 Kobo or 0.03 per cent against the greenback to sell at N462.00/$1 compared with the previous day’s value of N462.13, amid a significant reduction in the value of forex transactions during the session.

FMDQ Securities Exchange put the day’s turnover at $66.03 million, 44.9 per cent or $53.94 million lower than the $119.97 million achieved a day earlier.

In the parallel market, the local currency lost N3 against the United States Dollar yesterday to trade at N737/$1, in contrast to the midweek session’s rate of N734/$1.

But in the Peer-2-Peer, the exchange rate of the Nigerian Naira to its American counterpart remained unchanged at N752/$1 at the close of business.

The domestic currency depreciated the Pound Sterling in the interbank segment of the market on Thursday by N1.79 to close at N574.78/£1 versus N572.99/£1 and against the Euro by 4.01 to close at N509.05/€1 compared with Wednesday’s N505.04/€1.

In the cryptocurrency market, there was a mixed outcome as investors struggled to find footing over concerns over First Republic Bank. It was reported that customers withdrew around $100 billion in deposits from First Republic in March.

Bitcoin (BTC) gained 1.4 per cent yesterday to quote at $29,476.32, Ethereum (ETH) went up by 0.2 per cent to sell at $1,912.93, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 2.3 per cent addition to trade at $0.4091, Solana (SOL) made a 2.2 per cent rise to quote at $22.9, and Litecoin (LTC) went up by 0.3 per cent to $89.48.

On the flip side, Binance Coin (BNB) lost 1.9 per cent to quote at $327.04, Dogecoin (DOGE) slumped by 0.1 per cent to $0.0803, and Cardano (ADA) dropped 0.1 per cent to trade at $0.4091, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) traded flat at $1.00 each.