Naira Slides N2 to N1,333 Per Dollar at Official Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira fell against the US Dollar by N2 or 0.15 per cent in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Monday, October 19, to trade at N1,333.76/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s N1,331.76/$1.

The domestic currency also weakened against the Pound Sterling in the official market on the first trading session of the week by N15.84 to end at N1,778.29/£1 compared with last Friday’s N1,762.45/£1, and lost N6.77 on the Euro to sell at N1,497.41/€1 versus the preceding session’s N1,490.64/€1.

But at the black market, the Nigerian Naira traded flat against the United States Dollar yesterday at N1,358/$1, and also maintained stability against the greenback at the GTBank forex desk at N1,340/$1.

Interbank FX turnover fell by 84.1 per cent to $40.975 million on Monday from $258.426 million, according to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The number of FX deals at the interbank market decreased to 59 deals from 135 deals.

Market analysts say the near-term outlook for foreign exchange inflows would depend on the resilience of foreign portfolio participation and a recovery in domestic sources of Dollar supply.

Deutsche Bank added Nigeria to its frontier FX monitor and is wagering the Naira can appreciate against the Dollar.

In a Monday note, its strategists and economists said the Naira is undervalued and offers appealing carry – the interest you earn holding a currency – helped by favourable inflation-adjusted rates.

They also flagged the performance backdrop, indicating that the Naira has climbed almost 8 per cent against the Dollar this year, putting it in the top 10 out of 144 currencies that Bloomberg follows.

In the cryptocurrency market, the majority of benchmarked coins went south as interest rates are back on the rise, triggering the US 10-year Treasury yield up 3.3 basis points to 5.133 per cent after having nearly fallen through 5 per cent at one point last week.

Rate hike odds for next week’s Federal Reserve meeting have risen to 18 per cent after having dropped to as low as 12 per cent last week.

Cardano (ADA) dropped 1.9 per cent to $0.2164, Ethereum (ETH) declined by 1.5 per cent to $2,392.06, Bitcoin (BTC) slipped by 1.4 per cent to $81,557.02, Solana (SOL) slid by 1.3 per cent to $104.26, Ripple (XRP) dipped by 0.9 per cent to $1.29, and Dogecoin (DOGE) went down by 0.7 per cent to $0.0791.

However, Binance Coin (BNB) appreciated by 0.2 per cent to $728.45, and TRON (TRX) gained 0.1 per cent to trade at $0.3314, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat at $1.00 apiece.