Naira Recovers After Early Scare Triggered by FX Scarcity

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigerian Naira made some recoveries against the US Dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) and the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) windows of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Thursday, April 11.

Earlier in the session, the Naira suffered a significant loss against its American currency, with speculators taking advantage of the loophole in the FX market in the country.

The local currency gained N1.04 or 0.13 per cent against the greenback at the spot market during the session to trade at N781.34/$1 compared with the previous day’s value of N782.38/$1.

Data from FMDQ Securities Exchange showed that the value of forex transactions during the trading day went down by 2.4 per cent or $1.47 million to $58.79 million from the $60.26 million achieved a day earlier.

In the P2P segment, Business Post reported that the intra-day trading hit a low of N940/$1, but towards the close of the day, the Naira recovered and gained N2 against the Dollar to close at N925/$1 compared with the previous day’s N927/$1.

However, in the black market, the domestic currency depreciated against the greenback yesterday by N5 to trade at N920/$1 compared with Wednesday’s closing price of N915/$1.

The Naira traded flat against the Pound Sterling and the Euro in the I&E segment on Thursday at N977.41/£1 and N841.99/€1, respectively.

At the crypto market, most of the tokens moved toward the bears, as inflation data from the US indicated an acceleration in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), rising from an annual rate of 3 per cent to 3.2 per cent. However, this figure fell slightly below the market expectation of 3.3 per cent.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell by 0.5 per cent to $29,348.74, Ethereum (ETH) slid 0.3 per cent to $1,845.10, Litecoin (LTC) depreciated by 1.2 per cent to $83.09, Binance Coin (BNB) fell by 1.1 per cent to $240.35, and Cardano (ADA) dropped 1.0 per cent to sell at $0.2963.

Further, Dogecoin (DOGE) shrank by 0.3 per cent to $0.0755, and Ripple (XRP) lost 0.03 per cent to trade at $0.6372, while Solana (SOL) appreciated by 1.9 per cent to $24.69, with Binance USD (BUSD) and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) remaining unchanged at $1.00 apiece.