Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange (forex) market witnessed a shortage in FX supply on Thursday, March 25.
This put pressure on the Naira, making it lose N1 against the US Dollar at the market window during the session to close at N409.75/$1.
At the previous trading session, the local currency was exchanged against the United States currency at the same segment specially tailored for investment transactions at N408.75/$1.
According to data obtained by Business Post from the FMDQ Securities Exchange, forex demand surged by 419.0 per cent and the supply could not meet this, causing the Naira to depreciate.
Yesterday, the Naira was bid as high as N411.40/$1 at the market window and also bids received for as low as N393.00/$1, according to the FMDQ.
At the close of business, transactions worth $171.85 million were recorded in contrast to the previous day $33.11 million worth of trades.
However, at the parallel market, the Naira retained its previous closing rate against the Dollar at N486/$1. It also traded flat against the Euro and the British Pound Sterling at N580/€1 and N680/£1 respectively.
At the interbank segment of the market, the rate at which the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sold the greenback to commercial banks remained at N379/$1.
Volatility Amid General Bearish Crypto Assets
At the cryptocurrency market on Thursday, it was mixed as the value of the seven digital currencies tracked by Business Post moved in different directions.
The Bitcoin (BTC) saw its value further shed 1.9 per cent to trade at N26,000,914.99; the Ripple (XRP) lost 3.4 per cent to trade at N263.84; while the Dash (DASH) went down by 3.6 per cent to sell at N95,500.31.
Furthermore, the Litecoin (LTC) depreciated by 9.1 per cent to trade at N90,000; while the Tron (TRX) went down by 1.5 per cent to sell at N28.66.
However, there were two gainers amid the overall bearish market as Ethereum (ETH) made a 5.3 per cent gain to sell at N820,266.90; while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) recorded a 0.6 per cent appreciation to quote at N505.64.
