Naira Now N1,510/$1 at Official Market, N1,570/$1 at Parallel Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira witnessed a depreciation of 0.23 per cent or N1.80 on the US Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Thursday, February 13.

According to data obtained by Business Post from the FMDQ Securities Exchange, the exchange rate of the Naira to the Dollar closed at N1,510.00/$1, in contrast to the preceding day’s N1,506.56/$1.

But the domestic currency closed flat against the Pound Sterling and the Euro in the spot market yesterday at N1,872.10/£1 and N1,559.96/€1, respectively.

The local currency, however, improved its value against the US Dollar at the parallel market on Thursday by N5 to trade at N1,570/$1 compared with the N1,575/$1 it was transacted at midweek.

In the cryptocurrency market, there were major positive outcomes after US inflation at the wholesale level came in faster than forecast last month in another disappointment to investors and policymakers hoping for cooling price pressures.

The Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 0.4 per cent in January versus forecasts for 0.3 per cent and 0.2 pr cent in December. On a year-over-year basis, PPI was higher by 3.5 per cent against estimates for 3.2 per cent and 3.3 per cent in December.

The markets were earlier surprised by Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for January that came in far stronger than estimate

Ripple (XRP) jumped by 3.8 per cent to close at $2.56, Litecoin (LTC) recorded a 3.5 per cent rise to trade at $127.02, Cardano (ADA) rose by 2.7 per cent to finish at $0.7981, Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated by 0.5 per cent to sell at $0.2621, Bitcoin (BTC) gained 0.3 per cent to end at $96,751.51, and Solana (SOL) increased by 0.3 per cent to settle at $195.77.

On the flip side, Binance Coin (BNB) went down by 5.3 per cent to quote at $671.23, and Ethereum (ETH) depreciated by 0.4 per cent to close at $2,699.64, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 apiece.