By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira put up a weak performance against the United States Dollar across the various segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Thursday. November 30, 2023, the last trading session of the month.
In the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) window, which is the official market, the Nigerian currency lost 0.1 per cent or 85 Kobo against the greenback during the session to settle at N832.32/$1 compared with the preceding day’s value of N831.47/$1.
A slight strain in the supply of forex into the spot market was partly responsible for the weakening of the local currency during the trading day.
The value of FX transactions, according to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange, stood at $115.41 million, 17.8 per cent or $24.94 million lower than the $140.35 million recorded a day earlier.
Similarly, the domestic currency was battered in the parallel market yesterday as its street value fell by N5 against the US Dollar to close at N1,160/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s rate of N1,155/$1.
In the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segment, the value of the Nigerian currency depreciated against the US currency on Thursday by N9 to sell at N1,156/$1 compared with Wednesday’s closing rate of N1,147/$1.
However, in the official market, the Naira traded flat against the British Pound Sterling yesterday at N1,046.09/£1 and remained unchanged against the Euro at N940.69/€1.
Meanwhile, the crypto market plunged into the red territory on Thursday due to sell-offs as the year navigates into the festive season and investors take profit.
As a result, Binance Coin (BNB) recorded a 1.8 per cent depreciation to trade at $227.02, Ethereum (ETH) lost 1.7 per cent to sell for $2,027.38, Bitcoin (BTC) weakened by 1.3 per cent to $37,679.01, Cardano (ADA) recorded a 1.2 per cent drop to sell at $0.3826, Ripple (XRP) slid by 0.9 per cent to $0.6072, Litecoin (LTC) depreciated by 0.6 per cent to $69.60, and Dogecoin (DOGE) dipped 0.3 per cent to quote at $0.0806.
However, Solana (SOL) appreciated by 1.2 per cent to $59.20, while the US Dollar Tether (USDt) and US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat at $1.00 each.