Naira Loses N1 to Trade at N503/$1 at Unregulated FX Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira weakened by N1 against the Dollar at the unregulated segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Wednesday, June 30.

At the last trading session of the month of June, the local currency depreciated to N503/$1 in contrast to N502/$1 it traded at the previous session.

However, at the same parallel market, the local currency remained flat against the Pound Sterling as it closed at N710/£1 but lost N3 against the Euro to sell for N598/€1 compared to N595/€1 of the previous day.

At the Investors and Exchange (I&E) FX window, the Naira also depreciated against the greenback at the midweek session by 67 kobo or 0.16 per cent to settle at N411.50/$1 in contrast to N410.83/$1 it traded at the preceding session.

It was observed that the market segment witnessed a disruption in FX liquidity, which put pressure on the domestic currency.

Though the FX demand was lower, it was still high and the inability of traders to meet the demands of their customers weakened the Nigerian currency.

Transactions worth $160.12 million were carried out on Wednesday, 25.7 per cent or $55.41 million lower than the $215.53 million recorded at the preceding session.

At the interbank segment of the market, the value of the Naira against the United States currency remained unchanged yesterday at N410.16/$1.

Meanwhile, at the digital currency market, most cryptocurrencies closed bearish, according to data obtained by Business Post from Quidax.

The Ripple (XRP) depreciated by 4.2 per cent to trade at N338.10, Litecoin (LTC) went down by 6.5 per cent to trade at N70,900.80, Dash (DASH) declined by 3.9 per cent to sell at N66,303.99, Tron (TRX) dropped 2.5 per cent to sell at N32.66, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) fell by 1.6 per cent to close at N508.00.

However, Ethereum (ETH) marginally gained 0.2 per cent to close at N1,110,000.00, while Bitcoin (BTC) closed flat at N17,741,446.72.