By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira was relatively stable against the United States Dollar in the different segments of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Monday as traders remained worried about the volatility in the ecosystem.
Yesterday, the new cash withdrawal policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which commenced on January 9, 2023, was the main focus of the day as investors monitor how it would impact the financial system.
This eased the pressure on the domestic currency in the currency market on Monday, helping it to close stronger against US currency in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) window of the FX market by N2 to trade at N768/$1 compared with last Friday’s rate of N770/$1.
But in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the market, the exchange rate of the Nigerian Naira to the greenback remained unchanged yesterday at N461.67/$1 amid low demand for forex, as the turnover stood at $47.13 million.
Also, in the parallel market, the Nigerian currency closed flat against its American counterpart during the session at N742/$1, as most currency hawkers were almost idle due to low trading activity.
However, in the interbank segment, the Naira witnessed shelling against the Pound Sterling as it depreciated by N6.83 to N548.39/£1 from N541.56/£1, and against the Euro, it shrank by N4.48 to trade at N482.56/€1, in contrast to last Friday’s rate of N478.08/€1.
In the cryptocurrency market, transactions were bullish on Monday as investors rushed into riskier markets on signs of cooling inflation, leaving Solana (SOL) rising by 18.9 per cent to $16.33.
Cardano (ADA) rose by 6.8 per cent to trade at $0.3117, Litecoin (LTC) went up by 6.2 per cent to $81.10, Dogecoin (DOGE) improved by 4.1 per cent to $0.0758, Ethereum (ETH) appreciated by 3.9 per cent to sell at $1,320.50, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 2.4 per cent gain to trade at $0.3498, Bitcoin (BTC) made a 1.4 per cent leap to close at $17,218.85, while Binance Coin (BNB) added 0.9 per cent to sell for $272.42.
But the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.
