Naira Gains on Dollar Across FX Market Windows

By Adedapo Adesanya

The local currency put up a better performance against the US Dollar across the segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Thursday as the thirst for foreign currencies waned.

Business Post reports that the Nigerian Naira appreciated against its American counterpart yesterday in the Investors and Exporters (I&E), the black market, and the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) windows of the forex market.

In the parallel market, the domestic currency gained N4 against the greenback to quote at N738/$1 compared with the preceding session’s rate of N742/$1.

Also, in the peer-to-peer segment, the Naira appreciated against the US Dollar by N4 to settle at N755/$1, in contrast to Wednesday’s exchange rate of N759/$1.

In the official market, the value of the country’s legal tender strengthened by 73 Kobo or 0.16 per cent during the session to sell for N461.17/$1 compared with N461.90/$1 of the previous trading day.

This was supported by a 41.2 per cent or $62.31 million slip in the demand for forex in the I&E segment yesterday to $88.95 million from the $151.26 million recorded in the midweek session, according to data from FMDQ Securities Exchange.

However, in the interbank segment, the Naira lost against the Pound Sterling on Thursday by N2.15 to trade at N551.18/£1 versus Wednesday’s value of N549.03/£1 and against the Euro, it tumbled by N2.60 to close at N487.75/€1 versus N485.15/€1.

Meanwhile, positive outcomes were recorded in the cryptocurrency market, where the largest-valued coin, Bitcoin (BTC), surged above $18,000 due to positive information from the US inflation report yesterday.

The figures released on Thursday showed a considerable drop in consumer prices and triggered a 7.3 per cent rise in BTC to $18,824.79, as Ethereum (ETH) moved up by 5.6 per cent to $1,421.27.

Cardano (ADA) recorded a 4.4 per cent increase to sell at $0.3285, Dogecoin (DOGE) notched a 4.0  per cent rise to trade at $0.0796, Solana (SOL) recorded a 3.6 per cent gain to sell at $16.37, Litecoin (LTC) jumped by 3.4 per cent to $85.11, Binance Coin (BNB) increased by 2.4 per cent to $286.11, and Ripple (XRP) chalked up 1.4 per cent to quote at $0.3755.

But the duo of US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) remained unchanged at $1.00.