By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira finished stronger against the US Dollar at both the Investors and Exporters (I&E) and the unregulated segment of the foreign exchange market in Nigeria on Wednesday.
During the midweek trading day, the local currency appreciated by N2.67 or 0.68 per cent at the I&E window to trade at N392/$1 in contrast to N394.67/$1 it was sold the day before.
This was boosted by the 50.5 per cent or $119.68 million decline in the turnover for the day, which stood at $117.23 million compared with the previous session’s $236.91 million.
Equally, at the black market, the local currency closed stronger against the US Dollar by N1 to quote at N475/$1 in contrast to N476/$1 it traded on Tuesday.
It was, however, a different outcome for the Naira against the Pound and the Euro at the parallel market as it depreciated against both currencies.
It lost N2 against the British currency to sell at N632/£1 as against N630/£1 of the preceding day and equally lost N2 against the Euro to settle at N580/€1 versus N578/$1.
At the Bureaux De Change (BDC) segment of the market, data from the Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) showed that the Nigerian currency closed flat against the American currency at N395/$1.
The same outcome was recorded at the interbank window of the forex market as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) auctioned the greenback to commercial banks at the previous rate of N379/$1.
Meanwhile, at the cryptocurrency market, all the seven digital currencies tracked by Business Post on Quidax pointed southwards at the close of transactions yesterday.
The poor performance witnessed at the market on Wednesday may have been caused by the suit recently filed by the United States’ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Ripple (XRP), making it to lose more than 25.7 per cent.
Yesterday, the Bitcoin (BTC) dropped 2.5 per cent to trade at N11,020,000.00, Ethereum (ETH) went down by 6.0 per cent to N282,007, Dash (DASH) fell by 12.7 per cent to settle at 43,400.00, Litecoin (LTC) recorded a 1.8 per cent depreciation to sell at N49,672.20, Tron (TRX) dropped by 11.8 per cent to trade at N12.25, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) depreciated by 3.4 per cent to sell for N473.01.
