Naira Plunges to New Low of N530/$1 at Parallel Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira depreciated to a new low against the US Dollar at the parallel market segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Thursday, September 2 to trade at N530/$1.

Business Post reports that at the preceding session, the local currency was traded at N528/$1, indicating that it lost N2 to the greenback yesterday as forex shortage continues to grip the market.

At the same market segment, the value of the Naira against the Pound Sterling further depreciated on Thursday by N3 as it closed at N720/£1 compared with N717/£1 it closed on Wednesday and against the Euro, the Nigerian currency lost N4 to close at N620/€1 versus N616/€1 it ended at the previous session.

A look at the country’s official exchange rate window, the interbank market, the Nigerian Naira further lost 2 kobo or 0.01 per cent to quote at N410.37/$1 in contrast to N410.35/$1 of the prior trading session.

At the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window, the domestic currency suffered a 67 kobo or 0.04 per cent loss against the American currency on Thursday, closing at N411.67/$1 compared with N411.50/$1 it sold on Wednesday.

Data showed that there was a significant decline in the turnover at the I&E segment yesterday but the FX shortage put pressure on the local currency.

Transactions worth $296.34 million were carried out during the session, 39.06 per cent or $189.97 million lower than the $486.31 million executed on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was predominantly bullish yesterday as six of the seven tokens tracked by Business Post on the trading platform, Quidax, pointed north.

The only price loser was Bitcoin (BTC) as it sold for N25,726,852.65 following a 1.1 per cent drop.

Tron (TRX) recorded the highest growth of 9.5 per cent to sell for N54.40, Litecoin (LTC) grew by 5.1 per cent to trade at N99,350.73, while Ethereum (ETH) recorded a 3.9 per cent appreciation to sell at N1,983,500.01.

In addition, Dash (DASH) gained 3.4 per cent to trade at N131,270.32, the US Dollar Tether (USDT) appreciated by 0.3 per cent to quote at N528.33, while Ripple (XRP) increased by 0.2 per cent to trade at N650.99.